As part of its mission to provide innovative and impactful financial solutions to enable low-income individuals to invest in their futures, FINCA Microfinance Pakistan Ltd partners with Vital Green, to provide financing to farmers who are part of the value chain of Vital Green. The MoU signing ceremony took place at FINCA Pakistan’s Head Office in Lahore. The event was graced by CEO, Jahanzeb Khan and CCO, Chaudhry Muhammad Ahmed while Vital Green was represented by CEO, Ahmed Umair and COO, Tahir Abbas. Faisal Dawood, Vice Chairman of Descon Engineering Ltd. attended the ceremony as the Chief Guest of Honor. Dawood, while addressing attendees, emphasized that rural communities are the building blocks of food security and with the right support, they can continue to contribute to economic, environmental, and social sustainability. He also appreciated the efforts of both organizations to aim to create a greater social impact through the collaboration. On this occasion, Jahanzeb Khan, CEO FINCA Microfinance Ltd., said, “FINCA Microfinance Bank Ltd. has been serving farmers – particularly smallholders – and agricultural MSMEs during all phases of their business and are committed to focus on developing and implementing agriculture finance strategies and instruments to enhance their access to financial services as a way to increase agricultural productivity and income. This partnership with Vital Green is a testament of our commitment to empower the segment. We hope that this will open up more avenues of cross collaboration, allowing FINCA to become an integral part of Vital Green’s value chain”. Ahmed Umair expressed his views on the collaboration, stating that the low profitability of farming in Pakistan is strongly correlated to lack of knowledge, non-availability of specialty nutrition and access to finance. “The chronic shortage of capital means that the farmer has to rely on his existing links/contacts to arrange the inputs. He is seldom provided with the best possible or the innovative solutions demanded by the situation on ground. The most significant feature of this partnership is that the financing can be directly linked to an increase in productivity; deployment of lending, swiftly as and when required. Vital Green will ensure the right agri inputs are applied at the right time, at the right rate when the crop requires them the most, which will ultimately result in an increase in household income for the small farmers.” The MoU was formally signed by both the CEOs. The ceremony was also attended by Ghulam Qadir (CFO) and Manzoor Ahmed Janjua (CLO) of FINCA Microfinance Bank Ltd. along with other senior management members from both organizations.