Youth Programme: PM approves business loan scheme

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said the government would support talented and unemployed youth of Pakistan to make them self-reliant.  While chairing a meeting to review the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme, the premier approved the youth business loan scheme under which 350,000 youth will be given loans. The PM also directed to ensure complete transparency and fairness in the process of loan disbursement and further said that “no political and administrative interference will be tolerated in the loan scheme.” The small business loans scheme would provide loans to unemployed youth, especially educated youth looking for establishing or extending business enterprises. All Pakistani young men and women aged between 21 and 45 with entrepreneurial potential would be eligible for this scheme with 50 per cent quota reserved for women. Loans would range from Rs0.5 to two million. The debt-equity ratio for these schemes would be 90:10 with tenure of seven years.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2013.