Kanwal Naseer

Government of Pakistan has decided to bring out a loan scheme for the youth to start small businesses and to rehabilitate the flood affected regions of the country. The information was shared by the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Youth Affairs, Shiza Fatima. She said that Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif will announce the ‘National Youth Employment Policy’ in the coming days.

She said that under the program, 2 million youth will be provided with loans and employment opportunities in the next two years, and one hundred thousand youth will be trained in various marketable skills. She further informed that the program will also offer PKR 56 billion in loans to help farmers in the flood-affected regions. The money will be spent to generate employment and create livelihood opportunities for the affected farmers.

Shiza Fatima said that Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz had inherited a country in very bad economic shape. She said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was taking all the tough decisions to redirect the economy on a growth trajectory. The SAPM said that youth of the country were an asset and that a lot of investments were needed to make the youth a resource for the future. She added that the ‘Prime Minister Youth Programme’ will give easy loans to entrepreneurial initiatives by the youth.

The program has been designed for the age group 18 to 45 with 25% quota for female entrepreneurs. Loans will be provided under three different categories. The first category will feature loan opportunities worth PKR 500,000 with zero mark-up. In the second category, loans worth PKR 500,000-15,00,000 will be given on a 5% mark-up rate.

And in the third category, loans worth PKR 15,00,000-75,00,000 will be forwarded on a mark-up rate of 7%. “Loans will be given for a time frame of 8-9 years. The stipulated time for the processing of loan applications is 45 days, and the application forms for the loans can be downloaded from Prime Minister’s online portal,” she said.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk