ISLAMABAD - Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Muhammad Usman Dar Friday said Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES) of Prime Minister’s Kamyab Jawan Programme has been given overwhelming response by the youth across the country.
“Around 433,149 loan applications have been received online within a week under the scheme,” said Usman Dar while talking to APP.
He said the government had successfully managed the cyber-attack of Indians on “Kamyab Jawan Programme” digital portal, which showed the success of the initiative.
He said that a large number of youth had appreciated this step of the government as daily over 50,000 applications were being received. He said that loan would be given to the youth only on merit without any political affiliation.
He said that all Pakistanis including government employees of age from 21 years to 45 years could apply for loan. He said that 25 percent of total loans would be given to the young females for establishing their own small businesses. He said that all applications would be submitted online and SMS would be delivered on given numbers with confirmation details for assigning all selected bank branches, he added.
He said that this unique and ambitious program aimed at providing soft loans to the youth of the country and creating job opportunities for them with having follow up strategy.
He said that although similar youth support program had also been launched in the past, but they could not bear fruit due to lack of an effective and comprehensive strategy while under this program, a number of schemes would be introduced for success of the program.
He said that an amount of Rs 100 billion has been allocated for ‘kamyab jawan program’ to facilities one million youth across the country.
Online Portal has started on website in which a person can apply for loan of Rs 50,000 upto Rs 50,00,000 on easy returned back policy.
He said that for effective monitoring, online application form was prescribed through Kamyab Jawan Portal. The purpose of the portal is to provide a centralized platform through which applicants would be able to apply directly to the relevant banks.
He said that the portal would be hosted and controlled by National Information Technology Board, Ministry of IT and Telecommunication.
Only authorized stakeholders for specific purposes will have an access to the portal like individuals for the purpose of applying for loans, banks for the purpose of receiving applications, SMEDA for providing their hand-holding or guidance support wherever necessary and PM Youth Office for retrieving information for monitoring purpose.
Moreover, external audit of the portal from expert IT auditors will be conducted on annual basis to ensure that online portal is used by the concerned stakeholders for intended purpose only and unauthorized use of the online portal, if any, is identified in a timely manner.
He said that under this new program, subsidized business loans would be provided to the potential young entrepreneurs for the promotion of SME sector in the country.
He said that for the very first time in Pakistan, through the platform of PM Kamyab Jawan program, the government had created opportunities to open the doors of socio-economic empowerment of youth.
He said that under the program ‘Skill for All Program,’ technical and vocational training would be imparted.
He said that another initiative under the Kamyab Jawan Program would be ‘Startup Pakistan Program’ and under this program, potential young entrepreneurs would be trained and mentored to conceive, incubate, and mature their business plans through access to digital incubation platform.
Usman Dar assured that the program was completely transparent and merit-based.