PM YOUTH LOAN SCHEME IDEAL FOR SMALL, COTTAGE & HOME BASED UNITS

Zulfikar Thaver member board of directors of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) invited the attention of the youth to the positive aspects of the prime minister’s (PM) Youth Loan Scheme (YLS) and urged the unemployed youth to benefit from the scheme and not be discouraged by the negative comments of the critics. The scheme is for any legal business and the youth can translate their dreams of doing business to reality. The unemployed youth can set up small, cottage and home based units.

Explaining the role of SMEDA he pointed out that SMEDA has placed 56 feasibility studies, business plan guidelines, financial calculator and the application form on their website www.smeda.org.pk which the applicants can download free of cost. Besides the website carries more than 200 feasibility studies of different items for the prospective entrepreneurs who can reduce the capacity to match their business plan according to the loans granted under the YLS.

Elaborating on the salient features of the PM-YLS, he said it is definitely a supportive scheme for the youth between the ages of 21 to 45 years who can apply for loans up to rs 2 millions on a mark up of 8% with repayment facility spreading to 8 years with one year grace period. The equity requirement is 10% and 1 personal guarantee is required by a person whose worth is 1.5 times the amount of the loan applied and if guarantee of an officer of 15 grade or above is provided than the last salary slip of the officer is required. 50% quota is for women and 5% for the disabled, dependents and widow of the shaheed. The banks nominated for the PM- YLS are the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and the First Women Bank Ltd. (FWBL) The forms are available from the branched of the nominated banks and also SMEDA and can be submitted in NBP or FWBL branches.

Thaver urged the government to improve the environment and control the law and order situation as the SMEs are finding it very difficult to carry on their businesses especially in some areas where gangsterism is prevalent and the mafia is bothering them. The poor law and order would be an impediment to this scheme also and it is of utmost importance to clean the way for commercial activity by the small , cottage and home based industries which will be the aim of the applicants under the scheme.

He said if the environment is conducive to business all types of businesses will flourish and the PM-YLS will be successful.

Posted in: Press Releases