It is important to examine the rural grassroots performance of financial intermediaries being considered for agricultural financial service projects with a large number of clients. The performance of potential intermediaries for agricultural financial service projects catering to smallholder farmers, cooperatives, and agricultural small and medium enterprises needs to be examined to ensure that intended benefits are not unduly compromised. In particular, the coverage of service outlets and performance and commitment to serve client needs have to be looked into in addition to the usual selection criteria used by most financial intermediation projects, i.e., financial soundness, governance, management, staff expertise, compliance with domestic and project requirements, willingness to participate in the project, experience in the project area, and commitment to adopt environmental and social safeguards.
Gansu Featured Agriculture and Financial Services System Development Project