Rs1.4bn disbursed under Kamyab Jawan Programme

ISLAMABAD: The government has so far disbursed soft loans amounting to Rs1.4 billion among qualified entrepreneurs under the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES) of the prime minister’s (PM) Kamyab Jawan Programme.

Out of the total disbursed loans, at least 30 per cent were given to women while male entrepreneurs received around 70 per cent, an official of the office of Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Youth Affairs Muhammad Usman Dar told APP on Sunday.

He said PM Imran Khan had recently directed the banks for expediting the loans’ disbursement process so that the youth could play their due role in the national development.

The official said that YES had been playing a critical role in promoting small businesses in the country. "It also helped spur economic activities and jobs creation, especially in times of the coronavirus pandemic."

The ‘YES’ was launched under the banner of Kamyab Jawan Programme in October last year with the seed allocation of Rs 100 billion and a two-tier disbursement mechanism for the loans, under which Rs 100,000 to Rs 500,000 and Rs 0.5 million to Rs 5 million were given to each successful applicant.

A third tier had recently been added into the scheme, introducing a new category of loan size ranging between Rs10 m and Rs 25 m after expanding the scope of YES.
Under the revised YES, he said the loan amount had been raised up to Rs25 m from Rs5 m to benefit the maximum number of young people across the country. The number of participating banks has also been increased from 3 to 21 under the revised scheme.

He said the mark-up rates on the initial two tiers had also been halved from 6pc and 8pc to 3pc and 4pc respectively.

The official said the YES had been receiving an overwhelming response from the youth. “At least 1.25 million youth submitted applications within 15 days of its initial launch. It reflects the keenness of our youth in starting their own businesses.”

He said that the same kind of response was received after revision of the YES as more than 400,000 youth had applied for concessionary loans under the extended loan-scheme.

Earlier, SAPM Usman Dar in an interview with APP had said that the programme might help create 50,000 jobs by the year-end through further disbursement of loans amounting to around Rs5 bn among 10,000 registered Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) under its Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme.