Around 1m youth seek Rs760 billion loans under ‘YES’

Loans amounting to Rs 2.5 billion had been approved so far under the ‘YES’

ISLAMABAD (APP) – Approximately one million budding entrepreneurs have applied to get concessionary loans under Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES), a component of Kamyab Jawan Program, to the tune of Rs 760 billion.

The ‘YES’ was launched in October last year under which Rs 100 billion had been allocated for the youth and loans ranging from Rs 100,000 to Rs 5 million, being disbursed among the youth proving their business ideas practicable.

Initially, loans amounting to Rs 2.5 billion had been approved so far under the ‘YES’ which was launched in the federal capital, Sindh and Punjab to provide concessionary loans to the youth and would be rolled out in other parts of the country soon, an official source told APP.

According to the ‘Application Summary Report’ issued by the Prime Minister Youth Affairs Program, some 84 per cent of total applications, received under the ‘YES’, were of male as 0.83 million had applied to obtain soft loans.

Only 160,506 girls expressed interest in getting loans under the scheme, showing that only 16 per cent was interested in starting their own businesses with the help of government. Interestingly, as many as 175 people from transgender community came forward to avail financial assistance under the ‘YES’.

As many as 416,207 applicants fall in the age bracket of 22-30, constituting some 42 per cent of total applications, while 212,099 are of 31 to 35 years.

Rest of them were of 18 to 21 years and some of them fell within the age bracket of 36 years to 45 years.

Around 796,441 people have forwarded applications for concessionary loans ranging from 100,000 to 500,000 that became 80 per cent of total applications.

Only 20 per cent youth had applied for loans ranging between 500,000 to 5,000,000. While, as many as 675,279 people sought financial assistance under the ‘YES’ for launching new businesses while only 318,824 were looking for expansion of their existing ones.

Moreover, 804,491 youth that applied for the loan belonged to Punjab, 90,435 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 68,480 from Sindh and many others from Islamabad, Balochistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan.

Previously, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Muhammad Usman Dar in a recent interview with APP had expressed his gratitude to youth for showing confidence in the Prime Minister’s Kamyab Jawan Program.

He thanked the youth for giving such overwhelming response to the ‘YES’.