Govt involving private banks in PM Youth Loan Scheme

ISLAMABAD: In order to diversify the Prime Minister Youth Business Loan Scheme, the government has engaged private banks, chairperson of the scheme confirmed to The News.
Talking to The News, scheme Chairperson Leila Khan said the government was aimed at making this programme durable as it intended to help the youth in strengthening their financial conditions.
“The government is sincere in its efforts to fulfil its promise which it made to the youth with regard to assist them financially and the government had decided to involve the private banks in the PM youth loan scheme,” commented Leila Khan.
She said the government had disbursed the loan to almost 6,000 successful candidates.
“Sindh Bank has already launched the scheme and has allocated Rs100 million for the programme similarly, Habib Bank Limited (HBL) has agreed to collaborate with the government in this programme and allocated Rs2 billion in this regard. Habib Metropolitan Bank has also promised to allocate Rs2 billion for this programme. Meezan Bank has also showed its interest in the scheme and has promised to allocate Rs100 million in its first quarter. Beside this, the government is also negotiating with Meezan Bank for the Islamic Banking as well,” informed Leila Khan.
Talking about the slow process of the scheme and delay in disbursement of the loan among the beneficiaries, Leila Khan said the government could not force the bank management and could dictate it on this matter. “The government has not politicised this scheme and the bank management has been given free hand for granting loan to the applicants after verifying all the requirements needed for the loan,” she commented.
She said the recovery percentage was more than 94 within the first year of loan disbursement and this showed the success of this scheme. Leila Khan also confirmed that the bank which is collaborating with the government in this scheme had not contributed with the same spirit as the government wanted from it. An official of the bank, however, dispelled this impression saying the bank is not responsible for any delay in the scheme. He said the bank is following transparent procedure and implementing checks required for just distribution of loans under the scheme.
It is pertinent to mention here that the government has already disbursed Rs3.98 billion among the 5,700 successful candidates of the scheme so far. Whereas the bank is disbursing the second tranche gradually after verifying the progress, although the progress is a little bit slow but as per the top officials affiliated with the scheme they want to make sure that loan amount is being spent properly.