Manoj Sharma

Director

Manoj Kumar Sharma is a Director at MSC. He is a development and inclusive finance expert with over 28 years of experience.

Manoj has worked in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Lao PDR, Nepal, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Sweden, and Vietnam. Manoj oversees the Institutional Development & Support; Digital Transformation, FinTech-related initiatives, Value Chains Financing & Development; SME; Environment Financing and Capital Advisory Services Practice Groups at MSC. He leads downscaling projects for commercial banks, developing sustainable savings products for small entrepreneurs and clients, and building institutional capacity of MFIs. Manoj played a key role in mainstreaming loan portfolio audits in MFIs as a tool for banks to assess lending and investment decisions. He led the preparation of an organizational development toolkit for financial institutions and a business lending toolkit. He has played a leading role in MSC’s digital financial services domain, supporting strategy development and agent network management for a variety of banks in India, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea. His areas of interest include assistance to start-up microfinance institutions, product development, market research, and urban microfinance. Prior to joining MSC, Manoj was an Assistant General Manager at the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). During his time at SIDBI, Manoj was a part of the SME financing team, which negotiated a USD-225-million private sector support assistance package with the World Bank (lead investor), DFID, KfW, and GTZ. Manoj was responsible for managing the fund and a USD-22-million technical assistance to design and implement the program in clusters. He also worked extensively to design and implement programs to promote micro-enterprises and create livelihood opportunities in rural areas. The program was underway in more than 65 locations and has promoted more than 17,500 enterprises. Manoj has a Master’s of Science in Environment degree from Sikkim Manipal University, India. He is fluent in English and Hindi.

Posts by Manoj Sharma

PAHAL – from “Discard” to Cherished Success

India is a social welfare state. Rs. 2,700 billion (US$43 billion) have been allocated for subsidies in FY 2015-16. The enormous scale and the sheer number of people involved in the logistics of ferrying food grains, cooking gas and a host of other commodities across the country leads to “leakages”.To achieve the dual objectives of: […]

What’s Undermining India’s Financial Inclusion Progress?

The blog recommends that the government set an adequate rural DBT commission rate of at least 3% for the first few years of PMJDY.

How a 1% DBT Commission Could Undermine India’s Financial Inclusion Efforts

This PB focuses on last-mile banking agent (Bank Mitr) networks that will disburse DBT payments and enable customers to access their bank accounts.

Assessing the most ambitious public financial inclusion drive in history An Early Dip-Stick Assessment of Bank Mitr’s under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana

This note highlights the survey conducted by MicroSave, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to understand customers’ experience with PMJDY.

NBFC-MFIs as business correspondents – What will it take?

Following from the previous blog, the third part explores the avenues available for banks and MFIs to operate as agent network managers in a way that is mutually beneficial.

NBFC-MFIs as business correspondents – Who benefits? (Part-II)

In this blog, the MicroSave team examines the advantages and disadvantages of the BC model for NBFC-MFIs in detail.

Sustainable Microfinance: What does it take?

Past decade witnessed an unprecedented success of microfinance institutions in India. And when we thought nothing was going to break its stride; Andhra Pradesh crisis surfaced. It was an eye opener for many that surely confirmed microfinance is not the panacea for poverty. Since then MFIs have grappled hard to recover from the tight spot. […]

Sustainable Non Banking Financial Institutions

This presentation provides an insight on evolution of MFIs and lays emphasise on the drivers of sustainability