Enabling Environment Being Provided To Youth For Skill Based Training: Nasir Shah

Enabling environment being provided to youth for skill based training: Nasir Shah

Provincial Minister of Energy, Development and Planning Syed Nasir Hussain Shah on Friday said the government was creating an enabling environment to provide skill-based training to the youth so that they could increase their livelihood through small and medium enterprises development

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Oct, 2024) Provincial Minister of Energy, Development and Planning Syed Nasir Hussain Shah on Friday said the government was creating an enabling environment to provide skill-based training to the youth so that they could increase their livelihood through small and medium enterprises development.

Addressing the closing ceremony of the 8th annual Microsoft Conference here at a local hotel, minister said the provincial government had already initiated projects aimed at supporting interest based financing of the large scale businesses such as Day Fresh Milk facility at Bhambhore, multiple Control shed poultry farms, cold storages and other agro-based value addition private projects in Sindh.

He said SEDF project had already been launched by Sindh Government in 2012 and it was working successfully since last one decade.

He said PPP government through Peoples Poverty Reduction Project (PPRP) and SRSO have reached out to more than 300,000 lower middle class families to disburse interest free loans for small business initiatives in more than 16 districts of the province.

Recently government has enhanced the loan limit from Rs.200000 to 3 million to support medium size enterprising project, Shah added.

He said recovery of these interest free loans was satisfactory and 90% people were paying back their loans since last 8 to 10 years.

Shah further said that Sindh Government through other donor funded project such as PAIDAR (EU Funding of USD 40 M), IFAD (Funding of USD 163 M) and LivAqua (WB Funded Project of USD 135 M) for Fisherfolk agro based microfinance project.

" All these projects are primarily focusing on localized skill training leading towards interest free loans for small community-based business development", he added.

Sindh Social Protection Authority established under Govt of Sindh was working day and night to provide sustainable financing to all the marginalized communities who are living under poverty score in the province of Sindh.

Government of Sindh is also using banking sector to rebuild over 1.5 million houses which were completely washed out in 2022 floods, with an investment of more than 1.5 bn US dollars. This entire disbursement is being done through self-help construction mechanism where milestone-based funds are released to beneficiaries through banks.

He assured that Sindh Govt would provide full support to all the initiatives which will be brought forward by the private sector.

Chairman SECP Akif Saeed, Deputy Governor State Bank Dr. Inayat Ali, Chairman PMU Aamir Khan, Chairman PMU Policy Committee Dr. Rashid Bajwa, CEO Pakistan Microfinance Network Mohsin Ahmed, international financial dignitaries, academicians and experts from the banking sector were present on the occasion.