Kamyab Pakistan Programme: Bids invited from banks to act as wholesale lenders

ISLAMABAD: The Finance Division has invited bids from commercial banks –conventional and Islamic – for acting as wholesale lenders (WLs) for the Kamyab Pakistan Programme (KPP). The Pakistan Mortgage Refinance Company (PMRC) and the Development Financial Institutions (DFIs) regulated by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will act as wholesale lenders as per modalities operational framework of KPP and last date for submission of request for proposals is not later than October 27, 2021.

As per operational framework of the KPP, the wholesale lenders (WLs) will ensure, while selecting microfinance providers and Housing Finance Company as executing agents, that they undertake capacity building measures and are expected to increase outreach through new hiring, use of technology for digital processing of loan applications, and partnership with banks and telcos for delivery through ADCs, as well as, design and approval of product programmes under both conventional and Islamic modes of finance for each variant of the KPP and obtain Sharia approval on the structure and related documentation for the Islamic products for each variant of the KPP.

The WLs will also ensure expansion of branch network, where required, to increase outreach and collaboration individually or jointly with Pakistan microfinance networks centre of excellence for provision of necessary training to entire sales staff and management spectrum, particularly for housing finance, etc., besides executing agencies (EAs) partner with local players to build capacity of borrowers under the KPP both in terms of business development and technical skills.

Design and introduction of loan application form branded with Kamyab Pakistan logo containing additional mandatory fields for capturing will be ensured by the WLs and status of Sehat Insaaf card registration in the districts where the health programme has already been rolled-out and nomination for technical and vocational training with NAVTTC.

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The Finance Division, under mechanism for subsidy claim for the programme, will specify through RFP the availability and allocation of guarantee (subsidy) to be made through the competitive bidding process and wholesale lenders will provide lines of credit to EAs under the “Pre and post Finance” models as agreed between them.

The EAs shall disburse and report details of disbursed loans on a monthly basis to wholesale lenders, who in turn will report SBP and Finance Division on the actual utilisation of the guarantee amount

Debt Office to monitor and ensure utilisation of government guarantee on monthly basis and wholesale lenders shall appoint external audit firms on the panel of the SBP to undertake audits of at least 50 percent of the subsidy and loan loss claims by EAs on an ongoing basis. The wholesale lenders shall forward the subsidy and loan loss claim to Project Monitoring Unit (PMU) being set up in the Finance Ministry and it will validate the claim before recommending it for payment.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021