ISLAMABAD: The government has so far disbursed soft loans worth Rs1 billion among 2,190 qualified entrepreneurs under the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES) of Prime Minister’s Kamyab Jawan Programme.

Of the total disbursements, at least 30 per cent were given to women whereas male applicants received around 70pc, the office of Special Assistant to the Pri­me Minister on Youth Affairs Muhammad Usman Dar told APP on Tuesday.

Highlighting the youth empowerment initiatives taken by the government since its inception two years ago, Dar said the YES was launched under the banner of Kamyab Jawan Programme in October last year with the seed allocation of Rs100bn.

The executing banks have so far approved two-tier financing of Rs3bn for 7,592 eligible businesses. Out of the total approved loans, evaluation of 5,402 businesses is still underway, he noted.

He said the Bank of Khyber, Bank of Punjab and National Bank of Pakistan, which deal with the YES initiative, sanctioned soft loans worth Rs4bn for 28,859 small and medium enterprises after scrutinising a total of 58,031 applications.

Out of 28,859 SMEs, the official said, 14,664 had been rejected by the banks whereas 6,489 are currently under evaluation. He said after careful evaluation, the banks had initially selected 58,031 businesses for scrutiny whereas those of 10,699 was still underway. Meanwhile 18,473 applications were rejected.

More than one million applications were received under the Kamyab Jawan Programme, but unfortunately most of the applicants did not come up with practical business ideas, he said in response to a query.

He said the government last week expanded the soft-loan scheme to benefit maximum number of young people across the country. The loan amount had been raised up to Rs25m.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2020