At the Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division (PASSD), SAPM Dr. Sania Nishtar convened a meeting with Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) to take stock of the poverty graduation programmes being executed under the Ehsaas umbrella. PPAF is one of the four main executing agencies with a mandate to execute Ehsaas Interest Free Loan (IFL) and Ehsaas Amdan programmes. The meeting reviewed the overall progress of the IFL in 110 current districts and assessed plans to upscale the programme across 28 additional districts in lagging regions (including deepening in 5 existing districts).
With the recently ploughed injection of Rs. 5 Billion by the federal government, the IFL programme is being expanded to 28 districts nationwide. The upscaling is grounded on the human development index ranking of districts, poverty profiling and economic needs. The newly added districts are: Rawalakot (AJK), Gilgit (GB), Awaran, Kech, Sherani, Gwadar, Killa Saifullah, Sibi (Balochistan), Abbotabad, Lower Kohistan, Shangla, Batagram, Upper Kohistan, Tank, North Waziristan, Tor Ghar, Kolai Pallas Kohistan, D.I. Khan (KP) Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Mianwali, Okara, Pakpattan, Jhang (Punjab), Kashmore, Sujawal, Shikarpur and Umerkot (Sindh).
In a press statement, Dr. Sania shared, “Ehsaas IFL has shown promising results since its launch in July 2019. To-date, interest-free loans worth Rs. 45.84 Billion have been distributed among more than 1.31 million borrowers, of which 46 percent are women across the 110 districts. Out of the total disbursed loans, 34.1% are being utilized for commodity and petty trading%; 20.3% for livestock, poultry and fish farming; 16.3% for embroidery, stitching and handicrafts%; 13% for services (beauty parlour, barber shop, service station); 8.3% for agriculture; and 8% for manufacturing, light engineering and workshop”,
The 4-year Ehsaas IFL is Pakistan’s largest poverty graduation programme designed to impact 14.7 million deserving people with 50% women. Ehsaas IFL also brings into its fold, youth, persons with special needs, transgender, minorities and marginalized communities in lagging districts. The range of the interest free loans in Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 70,000.
As treasured in Ehsaas Strategy, the programme is an important component of National Poverty Graduation Initiative (NPGI) that aims to graduate the poor households out of poverty and set them on a course of economic and social prosperity.
Ehsaas interest free loans are being accessed through a network of 1,100 existing loan centers operated by 24 partnering organizations in field. As additional districts are being added, new loan centers will also be established. Information of Ehsaas IFL is available on the website: http://www.ppaf.org.pk/NPGI-ur.html in both English and Urdu. Secretary of the Division, Muhammad Ali Shahzada and CEO PPAF, Qazi Azmat Isa were also present. PASSD holds regular review meetings every month with all executing agencies of Ehsaas.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
?
