The government plans to grant soft loans to fishers via the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES) of the Kamyab Jawan Program to strengthen the fishing sector.
An official source familiar with the development told APP on Wednesday that the Ministry of Maritime Affairs would sign Memorandums of Understanding with multiple banks today (Thursday), including the National Bank of Pakistan and Bank of Punjab, that would eventually enable anglers to get concessionary loans under the YES.
The YES programme was started in October 2019 under the Kamyab Jawan Program to give adolescents low-interest loans to create their enterprises.
The government recently expanded the scope of YES, which was designed to provide youth with large amounts of concessionary loans ranging from Rs100,000 to Rs25 million.
It was formerly restricted to Rs5 million.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan, financing was divided into three tiers under the YES.
Tier-1 loans are limited to Rs100,000 to Rs1 million, tier-2 loans are limited to Rs1 million and up to Rs10 million, and tier-3 loans are limited to Rs10 million and up to Rs25 million.
The markup rate for tier-1 loans is 3%, for tier-2 loans, it is 4%, and for tier-3 loans, it is 5%.