KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has said that the banks have achieved 51 percent of the annual agri-credit disbursement target of Rs500 billion, by disbursing Rs256 billion of agri-credit in the first seven months of the current fiscal year (2014-15) and.
According to the central bank, this was an increase of 35 percent compared to the disbursement made during the same period last year.
SBP Governor Wathra, said the banking sector is poised to meet over 53 percent of the agri-credit demand in the current fiscal year compared to 39 percent in 2009/10.
He added that increasing outreach of agri-credit has positive effect on poverty alleviation, food security, export income and employment.
The SBP chief asked the banks to spread their outreach to remote areas and come up with new ideas and products to deepen their outreach.
According to ACAC, non-performing loans in agriculture sector dropped to all-time low of 11.4 percent. As against 20 in 2010, a total of 33 financial institutions are now providing agri-credit.
Wathra appreciated improving market trend from being predominantly state-sponsored to being more open and market-led.
