LAHORE: The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) and the Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN) will collaborate to enhance financial facilities for small enterprises.
SMEDA Chief Executive Officer Socrat Aman Rana and CEO PMN Syed Mohsin Ahmed held a meeting today at SMEDA head office along with their expert teams to identify the major areas of cooperation.
The meeting discussed possibilities of collaboration to build a strong understanding of the micro-enterprises landscape, focusing on their needs for financial literacy and access to finance through data sharing between the two organisations.
Socrat Aman Rana said, “We greatly value PMN’s role in advancing financial inclusion in Pakistan. We see substantial alignment in our shared mission for supporting the underserved micro-enterprises. We look forward to exploring how a symbiotic relationship built upon each other’s strengths can be established to create a meaningful impact on the sector.”
He said MSMEs play a key role in Pakistan’s economy by contributing 40 per cent to GDP, creating 78pc of non-agriculture employment and generating 25pc of exports. “There are around 7 million small and medium economic establishments in the country, and 95% of businesses employ fewer than 10 people. In addition, 28pc of households are engaged in some sort of home-based economic activity,” he said.
He said that there are 11 million active loan borrowers with an average loan size of Rs55,000, which shows the vast scale of micro-enterprise activity in the country. He underscored the need to uplift the microfinance sector, especially for small farmers, agriculture and livestock.
Syed Mohsin Ahmed said, it’s very important to make collaborative efforts for improving micro-financing in the country, because the micro-enterprises can be grown as small enterprises with collaborative support in providing finance and business development services.
“We look forward to joining hands with SMEDA and hope that together we will make a meaningful impact on the micro-enterprise sector by improving access to finance and other services,” he added.
