Khalid Butt
Lahore
The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) has set up help desks in 26 business cities across the country for extending handholding support to loan applicants of Prime Minister’s Kamyab Jawan Program.
Fuad Hashim Rabbani, Acting Chief Executive Officer of Smeda said on Thursday that they had been tasked with an advisory role in implementation of the PM Scheme. He added that the Help Desks had been opened at four provincial offices of Smeda and 22 regional business centers at districts level, which are mostly situated at the Chambers of Commerce and Industry buildings for convenience of the people. He said that the prospective applicants may visit Smeda help desks during office hours from Mondays through Fridays to have information of the said scheme. Since, the scheme is meant for small and medium business, the applicants can check the information pack exclusively prepared by Smeda for the scheme, which includes Business Plan Template, Financial Calculator, FAQs, Business Guides and Training Documentaries, he said adding that SMEDA is supporting Kamyab Jawan Scheme also through its regular activities such as training, capacity building and other handholding initiatives.
It is notable that Prime Minister’s ‘Kamyab Jawan – Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme’, for young entrepreneurs between the age group of 21 – 45 years, is designed to provide subsidized financing through the National Bank of Pakistan, Bank of Punjab and Bank of Khyber under the guidance and supervision of the State Bank of Pakistan. The loans will be disbursed to SME beneficiaries across Pakistan, covering; Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir. The Program aims to provide 25% of the loans to women entrepreneurs.
Loans provided through Kamyab Jawan Program are segregated in two tiers: Tier 1 loans fall in the range of Rs. 100,000 to Rs. 500,000, with Debt:Equity 90:10 and 6% markup to borrower, and, Tier 2 loans are from Rs. 500,000 to Rs. 5,000,000, with Debt:Equity 80:20 and 8% markup to borrower. Both loans are for a period of upto 8 years with a grace period of 1 year.
