On August 22, Manappuram Finance’s MD and CEO, VP Nandakumar, said that business from certain segments is still lagging behind pre-COVID levels, adding that demand for loans from bottom-of-the-pyramid is yet to pick up.

He said, “Customers, mostly from the lower end of the pyramid, their demand has come down. Post demonetisation their demand started picking up by the time they were hit by the pandemic (COVID-19) and prolonged lockdowns. This impacted their cash flows, their businesses etc., therefore, the demand has come down.”

“So that segment is yet to pick up. It has started picking up; not has yet come to the pre-COVID level, it is still lagging. We hope things will improve with the coming 2-3 months,” Nandakumar added.

According to him, the demand from existing customers is sluggish. However, expects gold loans to grow about 5-10 percent this year.

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“From the existing customers, there is some sluggishness in demand. So, what I look forward to is in one or two quarters, the numbers and growth will come back. This year itself, we expect a growth of around 5-10 percent and next year, our usual growth of 10-15 percent would be achieved,” said Nandakumar.

For the entire interview, watch the accompanying video

First Published:Aug 22, 2022 1:02 PM IST