Soft loans of over Rs22 billion disbursed among youth: Farrukh

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib Tuesday said that the government had so far disbursed soft loans amounting to over Rs22 billion among more than 18,000 young people under the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES) of Prime Minister’s Kamyab Jawan Programme (KJP).

Loan disbursement process under the KJP has been expedited in line with directions of Prime Minister Imran Khan who was striving to empower youth by creating massive employment opportunities, he said in a series of tweets. The minister said the partnered banks of KJP were tasked to remove hurdles in the concessionary loans disbursement process at the earliest.

Regarding the KJP as flagship initiative of the government for employment creation in the country, he expressed delight over a marked increase in number of successful entrepreneurs in the job market.

Farrukh said the government had a clear policy for ensuring equitable resources to the youth. The government would continue to extend all sort of cooperation to youth till the fulfillment of the prime minister’s vision for youth empowerment. He said the programme was being monitored at governmental level to ensure transparency and merit in the provision of soft loans.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Muhammad Usman Dar deserved congratulation on such steps, he added. Meanwhile, the minister also shared a success story of Waseem Akram who succeeded in opening a mobile shop in Attock after availing a soft loan amounting to Rs500,000 under the KJP.

Meanwhile, Farrukh Habib Tuesday, while congratulating newly unopposed elected office bearers of Rawalpindi Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ), said the government would provide all possible facilities to the media community in coordination with their elected bodies.

He, in a statement, expressed the hope that the newly elected cabinet including RIUJ President Shakeel Ahmed, General Secretary Sadiq Anzar, Finance Secretary Ayaz Akbar Yousafzai and Joint Secretary Umer Butt would work for the welfare of journalist community.