Maryam gives Rs61bn business loans in 3 months

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has made history by giving business loans worth Rs61 billion to more than one lakh people in just three months.

“For the first time in Punjab, loans worth Rs23 billion 91 crores have been issued to start a record number of 57,913 new businesses in just 90 days,” noted Maryam while chairing a meeting on Easy Business Finance and Easy Business Card Schemes. She said: “For the first time, 6,753 women have taken loans worth Rs3 billion 42 crores to run their own businesses.” She directed authorities to complete the process of pending applications for Easy Business Finance and Card loans as early as possible.

The chief minister directed making arrangements to activate Easy Business Card through WhatsApp as well. She sought a plan for export and manufacturing sector loans. She said: “Easy Business Finance and Easy Business Card programs should not be stopped under any circumstances.” She was apprised by MD PSIC Sara Umar about progress on Easy Business Scheme. She said 3,010 people got loans worth Rs18 billion under Chief Minister Easy Business Finance Scheme while 104,000 people got loans worth Rs43 billion under Chief Minister Easy Business Card Scheme. Out of 74,579 applications for Chief Minister Easy Business Finance, 2,505 have been approved, and loans have been received, whereas out of 12,029 applications for Chief Minister Easy Business Finance Tier II, 505 have been approved, and loans have been received. Out of 1,380,838 applications for Chief Minister Easy Business Card Scheme, 104,133 have been approved. The CM was briefed: “As many as 1,312 people got loans worth Rs3.91 billion for transportation business trading, whereas 175 people received loans worth Rs3.94 billion for distribution business. There is a trend of getting loans for professional services, agriculture, dairy, food, beautification, auto, fertilizer, pesticide and other businesses. The largest number of people are providing services through Asaan Karobar Card and 61,996 took loans worth Rs26.13 billion. As many as 24,522 people received loans worth Rs10.75 billion for trading and 10,699 took loans worth Rs3.69 billion for agri-small business.”