Vikram Akula on NDTV "Walk the Talk"
I happened to see SKS Microfinance CEO, Vikram Akula's interview on NDTV's "Walk the Talk" today. It is always great to listen to people who are pioneers in their own field. Vikram might not have come up with the concept of Microfinance but he sure is among the first to implement it on a mass scale in India and make a career out it. He seems to have a deep insight into the microfinance business and his determination to make a difference in the rural hinterlands of India, is inspiring. Vikram was named among Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world recently and his SKS Microfinance has recently attracted a 2.5 million dollar investment from Vinod Khosla's Venture Capital fund.
SKS Microfinance has already disbursed more than $180 million as loans to the rural entrepreneurs and has more than 632,000 clients currently. It achieved 161% growth last year(whoa!) and has a 98% on-time loan repayment, which proves that the low-income market is not as risky as it was made out to be! SKS aims to have 5,000,000 clients by 2010. I just can't think of any other sector in India which is recording such high growth rates and which can dare to have such high targets for the coming years! Expect greater things from Vikram and SKS in the near future, people!
http://www.sksindia.com/background.htm
4 comments:
i came across ur blog while surfing the net.
I saw the interview on walk the talk too. it was really amazing to know what he is doing.
Yes, it is! Truely inspiring. What makes it all the more special is the fact that it is a for-profit business.
yeas....infact vk said in the interview that in order to have a pan inida presence and to be profitable it is necessary to have a interest rate of around 25%, which is the lowest posssible micro finance rate for lending such small loans to such large no. of people.
u have an interesting blog, im linking ur blog to mine, I hope thats not a problem.
Not a problem at all! Good to know that you find my blog interesting.
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