<br/>The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to support the second phase of development programme for rural finance in Nepal. The ADB Board of Directors on Friday approved over $72 million which included $60.4 million as loan and the remaining $12.1 million as grant in aid, both from its concessional Asian Development Fund for the second phase of the Rural Finance Sector Development Cluster Program and for a related sector project.<br/><br/>Financial Specialist in Rural and Micro Finance in ADB South Asia department Mayumi Ozaki said in a statement that Nepal was emerging from a decade-long period of conflict into a new phase of reconciliation and rebuilding and had made substantial headway in reducing poverty. But in the countryside, including remote hill communities, poverty rates remain high due to lack of access to affordable credit, holding back development. <br/><br/>The cluster program is targeting an increase in credit access to the rural poor from 1 million accounts in 2008 to 1.17 million by 2012 and an increase in women’s access to finance from 200,000 accounts to 283,000 over the same period. The ADB said the policy and institutional reforms under this phase of the program will transform key rural financial institutions into viable finance intermediaries with a strong client orientation and pro-poor focus. Nepal's Ministry of Finance is the executing agency for the programme which run through June 2012.<br/>

<br/>The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to support the second phase of development programme for rural finance in Nepal. The ADB Board of Directors on Friday approved over $72 million which included $60.4 million as loan and the remaining $12.1 million as grant in aid, both from its concessional Asian Development Fund for the second phase of the Rural Finance Sector Development Cluster Program and for a related sector project.<br/><br/>Financial Specialist in Rural and Micro Finance in ADB South Asia department Mayumi Ozaki said in a statement that Nepal was emerging from a decade-long period of conflict into a new phase of reconciliation and rebuilding and had made substantial headway in reducing poverty. But in the countryside, including remote hill communities, poverty rates remain high due to lack of access to affordable credit, holding back development. <br/><br/>The cluster program is targeting an increase in credit access to the rural poor from 1 million accounts in 2008 to 1.17 million by 2012 and an increase in women’s access to finance from 200,000 accounts to 283,000 over the same period. The ADB said the policy and institutional reforms under this phase of the program will transform key rural financial institutions into viable finance intermediaries with a strong client orientation and pro-poor focus. Nepal's Ministry of Finance is the executing agency for the programme which run through June 2012.<br/>