Micro credit scheme: 50 percent loans be reserved for women, Prime Minister tells MoF

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has directed the Finance Ministry that 50 percent of the envisaged micro interest-free loan under the Prime Minister Programme should be reserved for women.
Sources said the Prime Minister was also informed that Central Developing Working Party has recently approved Rs 23.496 billion for Prime Minister Programme for provision of laptops to talented students. Nawaz Sharif was chairing a meeting to review the Prime Minister's Youth Programme on Wednesday.
The meeting was attended by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid, Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rehman, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Mussadiq Malik, Secretary Finance, Dr Waqar Masood Khan and other senior officials. The interest-free loan programme is designed to support 0.25 million financially vulnerable for which Rs 3 billion have been earmarked.
The Prime Minister said the government would ensure the youth is gainfully employed and helped in all respects. The Premier was also informed that initially 0.25 million youth would be provided with loan and 100,000 laptops would be provided to the talented students when the scheme would be launched in January 2014.
Officials of Finance Ministry briefed the Prime Minister about all the features of the youth programme and was informed that so far around 0.5 million suggestions have been received from the general public, of which practicable suggestions have been included in the programme.
The Prime Minister's youth program comprises six schemes including Qarze-Hassana (interest-free loan), small business loans, youth training scheme, youth skills development scheme, provision of laptops and scheme for reimbursement of fee for students of less-developed areas.
Moreover, the Prime Minister directed that youth from less-developed areas including Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu Kashmir be given priority in these schemes, and 100 percent transparency and merit be ensured.
Nawaz said the government wants to provide various opportunities to the youth including skilled education, trainings, employment and scholarships so that they could contribute positively to all fields.