{"id":8721,"date":"2026-09-09T20:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T15:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/?p=8721"},"modified":"2026-09-09T20:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T15:14:13","slug":"pm-urges-banks-to-boost-financing-for-agriculture-smes-and-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/2026\/09\/09\/pm-urges-banks-to-boost-financing-for-agriculture-smes-and-housing","title":{"rendered":"PM urges banks to boost financing for agriculture, SMEs and housing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Islamabad :<\/strong> Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has instructed provincial chief secretaries to conduct a comprehensive assessment of properties that could help facilitate applicants seeking home construction loans under the government\u2019s Prime Minister\u2019s Apna Ghar Scheme.<\/p>\n

The directive was issued during a meeting chaired by the prime minister to review progress on the Access to Finance Plan 2026-28.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Shehbaz said providing affordable housing to low- and middle-income segments of society remained a key priority of the government.<\/p>\n

According to officials, the Apna Ghar Scheme has so far attracted 147,504 applications, with 53,127 cases approved for financing. The approved applications have a combined value of Rs313.42 billion, while banks and other financial institutions have disbursed Rs45.43 billion to 8,739 applicants.<\/p>\n

The meeting was informed that authorities were developing a mechanism to identify plots across the country that meet mortgage requirements. Islamabad will serve as the initial testing ground for the system before it is introduced nationwide.<\/p>\n

Officials also said efforts were being made to involve major housing developers in the scheme through a suitable framework, aimed at improving its efficiency and making the programme more accessible.<\/p>\n

The prime minister urged banks and financial institutions to expand lending for agriculture, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government would encourage banks that play an active role in providing loans,\u201d he said, stressing that agriculture was a key pillar of Pakistan\u2019s economy and its development was a national responsibility.<\/p>\n

He directed the concerned authorities to remove unnecessary obstacles faced by farmers when applying for loans and ensure they could obtain credit without difficulty.<\/p>\n

The briefing revealed that bank financing for agriculture had reached Rs1.268 trillion by August 2026. Under the Access to Finance Plan 2026-2028, the government aims to raise agricultural lending to Rs2 trillion by June 2028.<\/p>\n

Officials further reported that 35,838 applications had been received through the Zarkhez-e application, designed to make access to agricultural financing easier. Of these, loans worth Rs7.35 billion had been approved, while Rs1.96 billion had been disbursed.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, bank lending to SMEs stood at Rs1.067 trillion in August 2026. The government has set a target of increasing SME financing to Rs2 trillion by June 2028 under the Access to Finance Plan.<\/p>\n

The meeting was also informed that the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) had provided financial literacy training to 1,096 SMEs over the past three months.<\/p>\n

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar, Federal Ministers Ahad Khan Cheema, Rana Tanveer Hussain, Muhammad Aurangzeb and Riaz Hussain Pirzada, Minister of State Bilal Azhar Kayani, Prime Minister\u2019s Adviser Haroon Akhtar Khan, State Bank of Pakistan Governor Jameel Ahmad, chief secretaries of the four provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, IBRD Country Director Bolorma Amgaabazar, presidents and CEOs of Pakistani banks and other senior government officials attended the meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Islamabad : Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has instructed provincial chief secretaries to conduct a comprehensive assessment of properties that could help facilitate applicants seeking home construction loans under the government\u2019s Prime Minister\u2019s Apna Ghar Scheme. The directive was issued during a meeting chaired by the prime minister to review progress on the Access to Finance …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":8722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[160,2294],"class_list":["post-8721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","tag-headline","tag-youdigital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8723,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8721\/revisions\/8723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}