Under the Prime Minister’s Apna Ghar Scheme, loans worth Rs448 billion had been approved for 75,198 applicants so far, the meeting was told. Loans amounting to Rs76 billion have been disbursed to 14,000 people while a target of providing Rs700 billion in loans for 125,000 housing units has been set for the current year.
Timely loans provision for PM housing scheme, SMEs, agri sector, key for promoting economy: PM
ISLAMABAD, Oct 14 (APP): Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday said that timely provision of loans to the housing, Small abd Medium Enterprises (SMEs), and agriculture sectors was essential for promoting the national economy.
Chairing a meeting regarding access to finance for Agriculture, Housing and SME sectors, the prime minister reviewed the provision of loans and access to financial resources for the Prime Minister’s Apna Ghar housing scheme, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the agriculture sector.
During the meeting, he encouraged banks actively participating in lending to these priority sectors to support national development and progress.
He also directed banks whose performance remained unsatisfactory, to improve their performance to qualify for government encouragement and support.
The prime minister directed the relevant ministries, secretaries and the State Bank of Pakistan to consult stakeholders associated with the SME, agriculture and housing finance sectors.
He instructed the relevant authorities to seek proposals from stakeholders to make ongoing schemes more effective and result-oriented. “The consultation process should be completed by the end of the current month, with recommendations submitted accordingly.”
The prime minister also directed that the inactive warehouses and silos of the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) should be operated under a public-private partnership model.
He said collaboration with the private sector should enhance the capacity of these warehouses and silos to ensure the safe storage of farmers’ produce.
The prime minister appreciated Allied Bank’s model of establishing warehouses for storing agricultural commodities and providing loans to farmers against their stored produce. He directed that the model should be expanded with the participation of the private sector.
He also appreciated Allied Bank’s investment plan for establishing a proposed SME park.
The prime minister directed the authorities to simplify the process of providing information and documentation for people seeking to benefit from the Apna Ghar housing scheme.
He instructed that obtaining an unencumbered title deed for housing finance should be made easier.
He also directed the committee on developers’ finance to finalise its recommendations and submit them at the earliest.
During the meeting, participants were briefed on the progress and lending figures for the housing, agriculture and SME sectors.
The meeting was informed that banks were enhancing their institutional capacity to extend financing to all three priority sectors.
Work was also underway to promote developers’ finance, for which a committee had been constituted.
Under the Prime Minister’s Apna Ghar Scheme, loans worth Rs448 billion had been approved for 75,198 applicants so far, the meeting was told. Loans amounting to Rs76 billion have been disbursed to 14,000 people while a target of providing Rs700 billion in loans for 125,000 housing units has been set for the current year.
The meeting was further informed that the processing time for housing finance applications had been reduced to just 15 working days, while the number of required documents had been cut from 25 to five.
In the agriculture sector, the total volume of loans stands at Rs1,352 billion, benefiting 3.455 million people while targets have been set to increase agricultural lending to Rs1,500 billion and the number of beneficiaries to 4.5 million by June 2027.
In the SME sector, loans amounting to Rs1,137 billion had been extended to more than 352,000 businesses.
By June 2027, the government aims to increase SME lending to Rs1,500 billion and expand the number of borrowing businesses to 575,000, the meeting was informed.
The meeting was also briefed on steps being taken to introduce revised regulations for SMEs and further simplify and improve housing finance procedures.
Other measures discussed included joint risk-sharing arrangements, promotion of supply-chain financing, authenticated data sharing and other ongoing initiatives to improve access to credit.
Federal Ministers Rana Tanveer Hussain, Dr Musadik Masood Malik, Attaullah Tarar, Riaz Hussain Pirzada, Ahad Khan Cheema and Shaza Fatima Khawaja; Prime Minister’s Adviser Haroon Akhtar; Minister of State for Finance Bilal Azhar Kiani; chief executive officers of JS Bank, Askari Bank, Allied Bank, Habib Metro Bank, Bank of Khyber and MCB Islamic Bank; and senior officials of relevant institutions attended the meeting.
