Appreciates banks for providing agriculture credit of over Rs1.3 trillion
\n MULTAN
\nGovernor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Raza Baqir says the credit disbursement to the agriculture sector has increased to Rs1.366 trillion in the current financial year witnessing a growth of one hundred billion rupees over last financial year.
\nAddressing the Annual meeting of Agriculture Credit Advisory Committee in Multan on Monday, he said the target of disbursing agricultural loans was 1800 billion rupees for the year 2021.
\nRaza Baqir said that various banks have approved loans worth 100 billion rupees for Government Housing schemes \u201cMera Pakistan\u201d and \u201cMera Ghar\u2019\u2019. He said loans of 38 billion rupees have been disbursed in this regard.
\nHe lauded banks performance in achieving the unprecedented level of agriculture credit disbursement of Rs1.4 trillion in FY21.
\nHe appreciated the fact that despite Covid19 pandemic challenges, collective efforts of 50 financial institutions under ACAC guidance helped achieve 91% of assigned target. In his inaugural speech, he emphasized that banks leadership can now take this journey to the next level of qualitative improvement in agriculture credit in line with the strategic shift and key policy actions taken by SBP.
\nAnnouncing current year\u2019s agriculture credit target of Rs1.7 trillion with 5 million borrowers, the Governor marked the insistent need to address quality of credit, its geographical imbalances and uneven distribution amongst different categories of borrowers.
\nAt this occasion, the Governor announced two new measures to help boost agriculture financing. First, a comprehensive scoring model to rank banks according to key agriculture credit indicators and targets.
\nTo foster a competitive environment, the banks performing well will duly be recognized whereas underperforming banks will be strongly encouraged to focus on metrics where improvement is needed.
\nThe second measure designates a bank volunteering to serve as a champion\/lead bank in an underserved province\/area.
\nFurther steps in this regard include establishing helpdesks in underserved areas to facilitate farmers, and launching targeted and collaborative awareness drives for an extensive outreach. He concluded that SBP\u2019s vision will serve two-fold purposes; enhancing farmers financial inclusion while providing more lending opportunities to the banks.
\nUpon convening ACAC meeting in Multan, the Governor especially highlighted the immense agricultural potential of the area and the opportunities in expanding agriculture finance.
\nThis was followed by a presentation on the performance of banks in agricultural financing. ACAC deliberated on the new directions in agricultural financing, particularly the climate smart agriculture practices and the role that financial institutions can play.
\nMoreover, the Committee also discussed avenues to enhance efficiency of existing agriculture credit infrastructure across the country.
\nIn the second session of ACAC, new and innovative ideas were presented by selected banks and other stakeholders in the area of i) value chain solutions, ii) electronic warehouse receipt financing, iii) digital loan origination system and iv) horticulture value chain financing. ACAC while approving the new ideas, set targets for scaling up pilot projects.
\nACAC meeting was attended by senior officials of federal & provincial governments, Presidents\/CEOs of banks, members of provincial chambers of agriculture, progressive farmers, representatives of regional farming communities and SBP senior officials. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Appreciates banks for providing agriculture credit of over Rs1.3 trillion MULTAN Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Raza Baqir says the credit disbursement to the agriculture sector has increased to Rs1.366 trillion in the current financial year witnessing a growth of one hundred billion rupees over last financial year. Addressing the Annual meeting of Agriculture […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-234093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"\n