ISLAMABAD, Feb 13 (APP):Advisor to the Finance Minister Khurram Schehzad on Friday said Pakistan’s access to finance initiative marks a structural shift in economic policy, aimed at unlocking grassroots growth and extending formal capital to underserved segments of society under the vision of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
According to his official X handle, he said the initiative, backed by the Ministry of Finance and led by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, has built a new financial architecture connecting banks, technology platforms, and risk-sharing mechanisms to citizens at the last mile.
The initiative spans skills impact bonds, affordable housing, small electric vehicles, fan replacement programs, MSME and SME finance expansion, women-led business access, gig and startup financing, and digital agricultural finance under ZARKHEZE.
Schehzad said agriculture remains central to the reform agenda, noting that small farmers are the backbone of this sector and have remained financially invisible while large borrowers dominated credit flows. Under the Prime Minister’s directive, formal finance is being extended to the smallest farmer through structured and sustainable capital.
ZARKHEZE, a three-year transformation program, aims to bring 750,000 new small farmers into the formal financial system and generate an incremental agricultural credit portfolio of Rs 300 billion, he added.
The government has provided 10 percent first-loss coverage worth Rs 30 billion and Rs 7.5 billion in operational support to de-risk banks and incentivize outreach.
The program features fully digital onboarding, collateral-free production loans, satellite-based validation, and insurance linkages.
He said agricultural credit disbursement exceeded Rs 2.5 trillion last year and Rs 1.4 trillion already disbursed in the first half of FY26.
Under ZARKHEZE, over 33,000 farmers have registered digitally, with nearly Rs 3.5 billion in approved credit limits, signaling strong institutional and grassroots momentum.