Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) is contemplating over an online platform for micro units to have an easier access to apply and avail loans for their operations, as per statements of a top official of the public sector financial institution.

“The plan to have an online platform is to spread the reach of MUDRA. The idea is to reach maximum number of people and create maximum employment. Micro units are really an employment creating sector,” MUDRA MD & CEO Jiji Mammen told a business daily.

As per media reports, the thought-over platform will also use analytics to provide lenders with more information about the micro borrowers.

For the current fiscal, the total MUDRA loans disbursement target has been set at Rs 2.44 lakh crore. This is a 36 per cent increase over the MUDRA loan target of Rs 1.80 lakh crore set for 2016-17.

“We have already disbursed Rs 70,000 crore this fiscal. The target of Rs 2.44 lakh crore is achievable. There is so much demand out there,” said Mammen.

Mammen also informed that MUDRA surpassed targets in each of the two years since its launch in April 2015.

“In the first year, as against a target of Rs 1.22 lakh crore, the actual disbursement in the fiscal stood at Rs 1.37 lakh crore. During the second year, the MUDRA loan disbursement stood at Rs 1.805 lakh crore as against a targeted Rs 1.8 lakh crore. So, in the two years since its launch, as much as Rs 3.17 lakh crore of MUDRA loans have been disbursed,” said the CEO.

India is home to about 6 crore micro units. Loans worth about Rs 1 lakh have been sanctioned to small entrepreneurs under the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana and with this the government wants to transform youth from job seekers into job creators. The flagship scheme has so far generated 5.5 crore jobs, according to a recent report.