Defending loan scheme: Ignore counsel of despair, Nawaz tells youth

PM hopes business loan scheme will come to fruition in a year.

HYDERABAD:

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday expressed hope that Youth Business Loan Scheme would come to fruition within a year.

“One year down the line and we will see a socio-economic change in the people’s lives,” Sharif said while addressing a launching ceremony of the scheme on Friday.

Defending the scheme against strident criticism, he said loans worth billions of rupees were given in the past to influential people and large commercial entities while small borrowers were ignored. “I ask you to ignore the counsel of despair,” he advised the youth.



The PM also interacted with the applicants, including 18 women, from the districts of Hyderabad division whose cases had been approved for the loan.

“Neither I nor any other authority in the National Bank of Pakistan can favour any applicant under this scheme,” he reiterated.

Nawaz said the conditions for the loan guarantor had been eased to allow any citizen having a net worth equal to 1.5 times higher than the loan to submit surety. A government servant of BPS-15 and above can also underwrite a loan.

“We have to trust the youth and give them financial independence to contribute their part in the economy,” he said, adding that the scheme would not only usher in financial uplift to the beneficiaries but also to all the people connected with their business.



Speaking at the occasion, National Bank of Pakistan Chairman Muneer Kamal said the scheme would contribute to further improvement of the banking sector which was still far from optimising its services.

Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, Federal Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid, the federal advisor Ameer Bux Bhutto and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders were also present.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2014.