Daily Times

Since the launch of the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES) of Prime Minister’s Kamyab Jawan Programme in May last, the government has distributed Rs 1 billion as soft loans among 2,190. Given the number of jobless youth, the number is next to nothing as more and more people should be brought under the YES umbrella to lessen the pangs of economic troubles of the people. At the time of the launch, it was promised that under the first phase of the programme, loans worth Rs 100 billion will be given to the youth to launch their innovative and practicable business ideas. The scheme also promised increasing women’s participation in the business sector and allocated Rs 25 billion for the women applicants. The scheme provides loans of up to Rs 100,000 interest-free to 45 marked districts, while Rs 500,000 and Rs 5 million can be obtained for a small to medium business. Moreover, the programmes aimed at focusing on artificial intelligence-fired programmes, for which Rs 10 billion were to be allocated for the establishment of smart tactical laboratories.

After one year, the disbursement of only Rs 2 billion speaks volume to the success of the programme and points finger to the government’s commitment to bring about an entrepreneurial revolution in the country. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Muhammad Usman Dar, who has been tasked with spearheading the programme, should accelerate the pace of the programme. Perhaps it is the complex file procedure that is the main hurdle in the clearance of applications. It can be a lack of awareness among the youth about the programme that is bringing fewer applications to the programme. So far, the Bank of Khyber, Bank of Punjab and National Bank of Pakistan, the banks dealing with the YES, have approved Rs 4 billion for 28,859 small and medium enterprises, out of 58,031 applications. The government needs to analyse the factors and make quick policy decisions to bring more people under the programme network.

As per Special Assistant to the Pri­me Minister on Youth Affairs Muhammad Usman Dar, among the fresh recipients of loan, 30 per cent were women and the remaining 70 per cent are male applicants. Moreover, banks have so far cleared two-tier financing of Rs3 billion for 7,592 business ideas, and of them 5,402 businesses are being evaluated. This is the stage where the government needs to provide consultancy to the applicants and make loan terms flexible. *