National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID) sign MoU to fund rural infrastructure projects

Key facts

• On August 27, 2026, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to strengthen collaboration in financing infrastructure projects with significant rural impact.
• The MoU provides a framework for joint financing, knowledge sharing, and development of innovative financing solutions, focusing on long-term, competitively priced finance for rural infrastructure and value chains.
• The partnership will explore funding arrangements and infrastructure advisory services across the project lifecycle, including project identification, appraisal, due diligence, credit structuring, pricing, and joint monitoring.
• NABARD and NaBFID will collaborate on advisory services such as project structuring, financial modelling, and debt syndication.
• Joint capacity-building initiatives will draw on the training institutions of NABARD and NaBFID for knowledge exchange.
• The collaboration will cover public-private partnership projects, agri value chains, and infrastructure with strong rural linkages.
• Key focus areas include water and sanitation, irrigation, post-harvest storage, cold-chain facilities, terminal markets, rural roads and bridges, warehousing, and compressed biogas.
• NABARD Chairman Shaji Krishnan V described the partnership as a way to bridge the rural-urban divide and advance rural prosperity.
• NaBFID Managing Director Rajkiran Rai G highlighted opportunities in food processing, storage, and cold-chain connectivity to raise farmer incomes.