Summary Pakistan has reduced documentation requirements for its Apna Ghar housing scheme from 25 documents to five and capped application processing at 15 working days
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The government has simplified the application process for the Prime Minister’s Apna Ghar housing scheme by reducing the required documents from 25 to five and limiting the processing period to 15 working days.
The measures were shared at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday to review access to financing for housing, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the agriculture sector.
The meeting was attended by federal ministers, the prime minister’s advisers, senior officials and chief executives of several banks, including JS Bank, Askari Bank, Allied Bank, Habib Metro Bank, Bank of Khyber and MCB Islamic Bank.
Officials briefed the meeting on lending figures and measures to improve banks’ capacity to finance the three priority sectors. Work is also under way to promote developer financing, with a committee formed to examine the issue.
Housing finance targets
The meeting was informed that 75,198 loans worth Rs448 billion had been approved under the Apna Ghar scheme. Of these, loans worth Rs76 billion had been disbursed to 14,000 people.
The government has set a target of providing Rs700 billion in housing finance for 125,000 housing units during the current year.
Alongside reducing documentation requirements and processing times, the prime minister directed officials to make the process of providing information easier for people seeking to benefit from the scheme.
He also called for simplifying access to unencumbered property title documents required for housing finance.
Agricultural lending
The briefing stated that total agricultural lending had reached Rs1,352 billion, benefiting approximately 3.455 million people.
The government aims to increase agricultural lending to Rs1,500 billion and expand the number of beneficiaries to 4.5 million by June 2027.
Shehbaz directed the relevant authorities to improve grain storage capacity by bringing inactive PASSCO warehouses and silos under public-private partnerships. The initiative is intended to help farmers store their produce safely.
He also praised Allied Bank’s model of establishing grain storage facilities and providing loans to farmers against stored commodities, directing officials to explore expanding the model with private-sector participation.
SME financing
More than 352,000 businesses in the SME sector have received loans worth Rs1,137 billion, according to the briefing.
The government has set a target of increasing SME lending to Rs1,500 billion and expanding the number of borrowing businesses to 575,000 by June 2027.
Officials said steps were being taken to revise SME regulations and further simplify housing finance procedures.
The prime minister also welcomed Allied Bank’s investment plan for a proposed SME park.
Review of banking performance
Shehbaz said timely access to financing for housing, SMEs and agriculture was essential to economic growth. He encouraged banks making significant contributions to lending in these sectors and urged those with unsatisfactory performance to improve.
He directed the relevant ministries, secretaries and the State Bank of Pakistan to consult stakeholders in the housing, agriculture and SME sectors to make existing schemes more effective.
The consultation process is to be completed by the end of October, with recommendations submitted to the government. The prime minister also instructed the committee on developer financing to finalise its recommendations promptly.
