Staff Reporter
Ehsaas Interest Free Loan has shown promising results since its launch in July 2019 through distributing loans worth Rs. 45.84 billion among more than 1.31 million borrowers, of which 46 percent are women across the 110 districts, till date.
This was revealed by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection, Dr. Sania Nishtar during a meeting with Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) to take stock of the poverty graduation programmes being executed under the Ehsaas umbrella.
PPAF is one of the four main executing agencies with a mandate to execute Ehsaas Interest Free Loan (IFL) and Ehsaas Amdan programmes.
“Out of the total disbursed interest free loans, 34.1% are being utilized for commodity and petty trading%; 20.3% for livestock, poultry and fish farming; 16.3% for embroidery, stitching and handicrafts%; 13% for services (beauty parlour, barber shop, service station); 8.3% for agriculture; and 8% for manufacturing, light engineering and workshop,”Dr. Nishtar explained.
The 4-year Ehsaas IFL is Pakistan’s largest poverty graduation programme designed to impact 14.7 million deserving people with 50% women.
Ehsaas IFL also brings into its fold, youth, persons with special needs, transgender, minorities and marginalized communities in lagging districts. The range of the interest free loans in Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 70,000.
As treasured in Ehsaas Strategy, the programme is an important component of National Poverty Graduation Initiative (NPGI) that aims to graduate the poor households out of poverty and set them on a course of economic and social prosperity.
The meeting reviewed the overall progress of the IFL in 110 current districts and assessed plans to upscale the programme across 28 additional districts in lagging regions (including deepening in 5 existing districts).
