Facebook has launched an initiative in 200 cities across India for allowing small and medium businesses to avail loans between Rs. 5,00,000 to Rs. 50 lakh.
For this purpose, the social media giant has partnered with Indifi, a lending and loan disbursal platform.
According to Ajit Mohan, Vice President and MD of Facebook India, no collateral shall be required for availing the loan. The interest to be levied on the same has been pre-defined at 17-20 per cent. Women led-businesses, on the other hand, shall be eligible to a 0.2 per cent reduction in the interest levied.
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The initiative has been launched in the backdrop of the USD 100 million business grant announced the company in September last year for as many as 30 countries, including India. Following this, approximately USD 4 million was disbursed among 3,000-odd Indian SMBs impacted by the pandemic company across the five cities, namely New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Gurgaon and Bengaluru.
Interestingly, India is the first country where the company has launched this program.
Although the initiative has been designed in collaboration, all disbursal and recovery-related decision shall be taken by Indifi.
Presently, there is no capping on the number of disbursals allowed, the company expects to rope in more player moving forward, and consequently make more capital available for the initiative.
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The company expects small and medium businesses to grow expeditiously riding on the initiative, which in turn shall benefit it in the long run, informed Ajit Mohan.
As of now, more than 200 million businesses use Facebook apps such as Instagram and WhatsApp every month globally to engage with customers, with Indian enterprises accounting for a large portion. WhatsApp alone, accounts for 15 million Indian business users.
