KARACHI: *PTI government makes unprecedented economic achievement for thefirst time in the history of country,*State Bank of Pakistan Governor DrReza Baqir has revealed.
“It is for the first time in Pakistan’s history that credit to theagriculture sector has surpassed Rs1 trillion,” said the governor whilechairing the annual meeting of the Agricultural Credit Advisory Committee(ACAC) in Peshawar.
Dr Baqir, however, urged the banks to enhance their efforts to achievequalitative aspects of the assigned targets, in line with the strategicshift and key policy actions taken by SBP regarding agricultural financing.
He highlighted that most of the banks met their assigned targets except forsome, including Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL), Punjab ProvincialCooperative Bank Limited PPCBL, few domestic private banks and Islamicbanks.
The province-wise agriculture credit disbursement witnessed double-digitgrowth across all regions; however, the banks struggled to achieve theirassigned targets in the underserved regions.
Dr Baqir urged the agriculture lending banks and institutions to scale uptheir efforts and commitment to ensure achievement of agriculture credittarget in the underserved provinces and regions.
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The governor apprised the committee that SBP was considering three policyactions to further promote financial inclusion in the agriculture sector.
“First, enhancing transparency through disclosure of bank-wise performancestatistics on a monthly basis covering agriculture credit disbursement,geographic distribution, outstanding amount, number of borrowers, andagriculture credit infrastructure.
“Second, introducing a comprehensive scoring model for ranking of banksagainst key agriculture credit indicators and targets. Third, introducingincentives and penalties based on performance scores of banks.”
Dr Baqir’s address was followed by a presentation wherein the performanceof banks on agricultural financing was reviewed against their targetsduring FY19. While assigning the agriculture credit target for FY20, it wasshared that the overall disbursement target of Rs1,350 billion has beenassigned to banks which was 89pc of the total estimated agriculture creditrequirement of Rs1,518 billion.
