President National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) Arif Usmani has said that the NBP is ready to support young entrepreneurs having innovative ideas. He was speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday.
Elaborating his point, he said that like developed world the bank is set to support the private sector and wishes to establish an Angel Investment Fund in collaboration with LCCI to support the new businesses.
President of the LCCI Tariq Misbah, SVP Nasir Hameed Khan, President SAARC Chamber of Commerce Iftikhar Ali Malik, former Presidents were also present on the occasion.
He said NBP, in cooperation with private sector, particularly LCCI wants to develop a bankable and viable structure for increasing the lending to the Housing sector, adding, in this regard, 4 to 5 nominated representative of private sector should work in collaboration with NBP to developing this financing structure.
As compared to other Banks, The National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) is affected more by the COVID outbreak. This is because NBP being a state owned Bank has given loans to more diverse kinds of businesses as compared to private Banks.
Arif Usmani said that an angel investment fund should be established at LCCI to support the young entrepreneurs with innovative ideas. NBP intends to cooperate with the private sector to have a better understanding of the complexities of the Housing Sector. There is immense potential for growth in the housing sector of Pakistan Usmani said NBP is taking various measures for improving its technology.
This would help to control mismanagement. NBP is also striving to increase its financing its agriculture sector as it is a very important sector of our economy. President LCCI Mian Tariq Misbah said COVID-19 has adversely affected the Pakistan’s economy as our growth rate has shrunk to negative 0.4 percent.
The businesses are facing severe liquidity issues. There are a large number of businesses who are not able to clear their bank liabilities in time and their names are included in Electronic Credit Information Bureau (eCIB). Mian Tariq Misbah said that “we recommend that you should take up this matter with State Bank of Pakistan to relax this directive”, adding the State Bank’s recent initiative of deferring the payment of principal amount on loans for one year should be extended till June 2021. This would enable the businesses to recover from the adverse impact of COVID-19 and normalize their operations.
