MULTAN: To facilitate growth in agricultural production, the Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) will disburse loans of Rs99 billion to the farming community during the ongoing fiscal year.

This was stated by the ZTBL chief operating officer while addressing at the inauguration ceremony of ZTBL’s Qadirpuran Branch.

“The State Bank of Pakistan has set a target of Rs500 billion for agriculture credit disbursement, out of which Rs99 billion will be given by the ZTBL,” he said. He said the volume of loans for this year was Rs20 billion more than the last fiscal year.

He further said his bank had taken a number of initiatives and launched several schemes to boost agriculture sector and help enhance sources of income of farmers.

The ZTBL CEO said many initiatives had been taken to support the farming community, including provision of credit facility, quality seed and other inputs for better crop production on sustainable basis. He also said the bank had introduced an alternate delivery channel of ‘Zarai Paisa’ under which customers would be able to avail branchless banking services.

ZTBL Zonal Chief Malik Ghulam Farid said with the establishment of ZTBL Qadirpuran Branch, the number of the bank’s branches in Multan Zone had increased to 12.

He said agriculture was the backbone of the country’s economy and millions of people were directly linked to the sector. He said Multan Zone would provide loans of Rs4 billion to the farming community under various schemes.

MNA Abdul Ghaffar Dogar and Provincial Minister for Prisons Chaudhry Abdul Waheed Arain also attended the ceremony.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2014