To boost its agriculture credit portfolio, Corporation Bank will conduct rural expos across the country during May.
Addressing presspersons here on Saturday, Ajai Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director of the bank, said that the bank wants to create village-level awareness on various products and services through such expos.
Each zone of the bank will be conducting a minimum of 10 rural expos. The bank has 31 zones. It is proposed to conduct more than 300 such rural expos across the country, he said.
With rural expos, the bank expects to generate good amount of business.
Such an expo will give more visibility in Ajai Kumar said that the bank witnessed a growth of Rs 2,326 crore in agriculture credit during 2012-13.
The agriculture credit portfolio of the bank stood at Rs 9,466 crore in 2012-13 as against Rs 7,140 crore in 2011-12.
He hoped that the bank will be able to double than what it had done in agriculture credit disbursement in 2012-13 with such initiatives.
The bank is also planning to increase its presence in rural areas during the current fiscal. Ajai Kumar said that the bank is planning to open a total of around 300 branches during 2013-14.
One-third of them, or around 100 branches, will be opened in rural areas during the current financial year, he said.
vinayak.aj@thehindu.co.in