ISLAMABAD: The federal government has disbursed Rs5,971 million (near Rs6 billion) under Prime Minister’s Youth Business Loans Scheme (PMYBLS) by the end of November 2015.
This was revealed during a meeting, chaired by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, to review the implementation status of various schemes announced in the last two budgets. As for the scheme for which mark-up has been reduced from 8% to 6%, an amount of Rs5,971 million has been disbursed to 6,593 beneficiaries by the end of November 2015. Under the scheme, loans of Rs100,000 to Rs2,000,000 are awarded to the youth to enable them to set up their own business. The NBP is now working concertedly to expand the outreach of this scheme so that maximum number of people can benefit from it.
The meeting primarily focused on review of PM Youth Schemes. Secretary finance briefed the minister on the progress achieved so far in the implementation process.
The meeting was informed that under the Prime Minister’s Interest Free Loan (PMIFL) Scheme, interest free loans of Rs50,000 average size are being made available to the men and women from households with a score of up to 40 on the Poverty Score Card (PSC) and with little or no access to banks or microcredit institutions. It was informed that PPAF has been provided an amount of Rs.3.5 billion for the purpose. PPAF has disbursed Rs2,250 million by the end of December 2015. Total beneficiaries so far are 110,016 of which 60% are female and 40% are male. Under the scheme, 250 Union Councils have been covered and 100% recovery rate has been achieved.
