Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that promoting small and medium enterprises, housing and agriculture to strengthen the economy and create employment opportunities for youth is among the government’s top priorities.
He was chairing a review meeting regarding access to finance for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), housing and agriculture sectors in Islamabad today.
The Prime Minister appreciated banks demonstrating good performance in extending loans to these sectors, while directing the State Bank and the Finance Ministry not to show any leniency towards banks delaying the provision of loans under government initiatives.
He said banks play a key role in private-sector development and urged them to extend the same cooperation to priority sectors as the government and its institutions provide to the banks.
Shehbaz Sharif further said that small and medium enterprises have tremendous potential to boost economic growth, enhance exports and generate employment opportunities.
He said agriculture is the backbone of the national economy, while the government is striving to increase exports through value addition of agricultural products.
The Prime Minister said the Apna Ghar Scheme will also promote several industries associated with the housing and construction sectors.
He directed the Finance Minister to resolve financing-related issues of stakeholders in the SME, agriculture and housing sectors and formulate a comprehensive strategy.
He also instructed the State Bank and the Federal Board of Revenue to jointly address tax-related issues of small and medium enterprises and exporters.
The Prime Minister further called for a comprehensive risk coverage strategy to facilitate easy access to loans for SMEs.
The meeting was informed that the State Bank is working on three key pillars to enhance lending to priority sectors. These include improving regulations, sharing risks and costs between the government and banks, and promoting digital facilities. In this regard, the SME Connect digital portal (smeconnect.sbp.org.pk) has recently been launched to enable entrepreneurs to apply for loans and track the progress of their applications.
The meeting was apprised that as of the 23rd of last month, loans worth 511 billion rupees have been approved under the Prime Minister’s Apna Ghar Programme, covering 86,899 applications. Loans amounting to 91 billion rupees have been disbursed to 15,584 applicants. The total volume of housing finance has reached 455 billion rupees, benefiting 187,317 borrowers.
Similarly, agricultural financing has reached 1,329 billion rupees, benefiting around 3.5 million people, while SME financing stands at 1,148 billion rupees, benefiting 342,458 businesses.
It was further informed that targets have been set to increase financing for both agriculture and SMEs to 1,500 billion rupees by the end of fiscal year 2027.
The meeting was informed that the government has introduced risk-sharing and credit guarantee measures for the housing, agriculture and SME sectors. Meanwhile, work is also underway to simplify loan acquisition procedures, reduce the number of required documents and improve access to financial resources.
The meeting was also briefed on the performance indicators of commercial banks in all three priority sectors.
