{"id":104443,"date":"2026-01-11T07:07:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T02:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/?p=104443"},"modified":"2026-01-09T11:11:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T06:11:23","slug":"pm-orders-priority-lending-for-smes-agriculture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/pm-orders-priority-lending-for-smes-agriculture.html","title":{"rendered":"PM orders priority lending for SMEs, agriculture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Islamabad: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday chaired a high-level review meeting focused on enhancing financial inclusion and facilitating loans for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), startups, and small farmers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the meeting, the prime minister directed the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to simplify the loan process for SMEs and the agricultural sector, emphasising that credit should be prioritised to promote modernisation and economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn developed economies, SMEs are the backbone of industry,\u201d the prime minister said, highlighting the importance of supporting entrepreneurship. He also underscored the need to provide youth with entrepreneurship training to stimulate new business activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Special Assistant to the PM, Haroon Akhtar, and the SMEDA team were tasked with visiting all provinces, including Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu &amp; Kashmir, to formulate a comprehensive policy for SME facilitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/punjab-interest-free-loans-for-agricultural-machinery.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Interest-free loans for high-tech agricultural machinery in Punjab<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The forum was briefed on private sector lending trends, noting that the number of borrowers doubled by December 2025 compared to 2021-22, exceeding 303,000, with total loan volumes reaching PKR 1.1 trillion. The number of farmers benefiting from loans is expected to reach three million this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The meeting also reviewed measures to support lending for modern agricultural machinery, livestock, and fisheries, and the central bank\u2019s fully digital \u201cZarkhaiz-e-App\u201d was highlighted as a tool to facilitate small farmers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The session was attended by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar, Federal Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, State Minister Bilal Azhar Kayani, SBP Governor Jameel Ahmad, and chief secretaries from all provinces and regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Islamabad: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday chaired a high-level review meeting focused on enhancing financial inclusion and facilitating loans for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), startups, and small farmers. During the meeting, the prime minister directed the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to simplify the loan process for SMEs and the agricultural sector, emphasising that credit should be prioritised to promote modernisation and economic growth. \u201cIn developed economies, SMEs are the backbone of industry,\u201d the prime minister said, highlighting the importance of supporting entrepreneurship. He also underscored the need to provide youth with entrepreneurship training to stimulate new business activity. Special Assistant to the PM, Haroon Akhtar, and the SMEDA team were tasked with visiting all provinces, including Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu &amp; Kashmir, to formulate a comprehensive policy for SME facilitation. Read: Interest-free loans for high-tech agricultural machinery in Punjab The forum was briefed on private sector lending trends, noting that the number of borrowers doubled by December 2025 compared to 2021-22, exceeding 303,000, with total loan volumes reaching PKR 1.1 trillion. The number of farmers benefiting from loans is expected to reach three million this year. The meeting also reviewed measures to support lending for modern&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":88795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15017],"tags":[67485,64901,70443,60340,70442,67497,53900,70441,70039,46261,70440,70438,2631,70439],"persona":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-104443","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-notices-announcements","8":"tag-agricultural-financing","9":"tag-economic-growth-pakistan","10":"tag-entrepreneurship-development","11":"tag-financial-inclusion","12":"tag-modern-agriculture","13":"tag-pakistan-banking-sector","14":"tag-pm-shehbaz-sharif","15":"tag-priority-lending","16":"tag-small-farmers","17":"tag-smeda","18":"tag-smes-loans","19":"tag-startups-funding","20":"tag-state-bank-of-pakistan","21":"tag-zarkhaiz-e-app","22":"cat-15017-id"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>PM orders priority lending for SMEs, agriculture - Zameen News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The meeting also reviewed measures to support lending for modern agricultural machinery, livestock, and fisheries, and the central...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/pm-orders-priority-lending-for-smes-agriculture.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PM orders priority lending for SMEs, agriculture - Zameen News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The meeting also reviewed measures to support lending for modern agricultural machinery, livestock, and fisheries, and the central...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.zameen.com\/news\/pm-orders-priority-lending-for-smes-agriculture.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pakistan Real Estate News &amp; 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