Dr. Raza Baqir, Governor State Bank of Pakistan, chaired the annual meeting of Agricultural Credit Advisory Committee (ACAC) on Monday in Multan. He lauded banks performance in achieving the unprecedented level of agriculture credit disbursement of Rs1.4 trillion in FY21. He appreciated the fact that despite Covid19 pandemic challenges, collective efforts of 50 financial institutions under ACAC guidance helped achieve 91% of assigned target.
In his inaugural speech, he emphasized that banks leadership can now take this journey to the next level of qualitative improvement in agriculture credit in line with the strategic shift and key policy actions taken by SBP.
Announcing current year’s agriculture credit target of Rs1.7 trillion with 5 million borrowers, the Governor marked the insistent need to address quality of credit, its geographical imbalances and uneven distribution amongst different categories of borrowers.
At this occasion, the Governor announced two new measures to help boost agriculture financing. First, a comprehensive scoring model to rank banks according to key agriculture credit indicators and targets. To foster a competitive environment, the banks performing well will duly be recognized whereas under performing banks will be strongly encouraged to focus on metrics where improvement is needed. The second measure designates a bank volunteering to serve as a champion/lead bank in an underserved province/area.
