The idea behind the National Rural Support Programme (NRSP), which was founded in late 1991, was to provide support to the rural poor through a countrywide network of grassroots Community Organisations (COs). NRSP would help them to access the resources they needed such as credit or technical assistance, or something as basic as specialised skill training.

The approach was to organise community members into small groups, and then build their capital base at the local level. This is done through savings and credit schemes as well as personal development, and linking communities with a range of government and non-government service delivery departments and donors.

NRSP began by extending small loans to villagers through its own limited resources, but it faced acute shortage of financial resources, for its micro credit programme. Other financial institutions were reluctant to accept group surety, as collateral.

First Women Bank Ltd. became the first institution that agreed to work with NRSP - to meet credit requirements for women