The project of 'Economic Revitalisation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata' (ERKF) funded by multi-donor trust fund (MDTF) under the auspices of World Bank (WB) has been launched. This was stated by Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA), Yousaf Naseem Khokhar.
He said that the authority has started meeting the Cluster representatives through relevant associations for executing the SME development component. General Manager Outreach SMEDA Head Office Lahore, Provincial Chief SMEDA KP Peshawar and Project Manager EKRF briefed the stakeholders at Swat wherein cluster players and the representatives of associations were also present.
The EKRF project is a joint initiative for government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata Secretariat and will cater to the economic rehabilitation needs resulting from the militancy crisis as identified for this region under the recently completed Post Crisis Needs Assessment (PCNA).
The proposed project will help in the revitalisation of the private sector in the crisis-affected regions through direct support for the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), attracting investments from the diaspora, and institutional capacity building including regulatory reforms.
The project is funded under MDTF grant of $20 million and will be executed by the World Bank through SMEDA, the Department of Industries, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata Secretariat. The CEO SMEDA further said that the SME Development component of the project has an allocation of $14 million with a share of $9.1 million and $4.9 million for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata respectively. The SME development component will be implemented by SMEDA and spadework for this challenging activity has already been started.
There are three sub-components of the grant programme that are rehabilitation, up-gradation supports and capacity building and business development. The rehabilitation component will provide direct support to the affected SMEs in the form of matching grants to the eligible enterprises, which may be used as working capital for reconstruction of basic infrastructure and acquiring, repairing machinery and equipment etc.
The sub-component of the up-gradation will support the up-gradation of SMEs for improving business productivity and efficiency. Matching grants to eligible individual SMEs for project, as well as group of SMEs for cluster development programmes will be provided. These grants could be used for technological innovation, products development, adopting new packaging/labelling requirements, establishing common facility centres (CFCs) etc Funds may be used for both capital investment and working capital.
The sub-component of capacity building and business development will support capacity building of SMEs in partnership with the Business Edge Programme of International Finance Corporation (IFC) and through procurement of business development services (BDS) required by the SMEs.
Under the programme a maximum amount of Rs 2.5 million will be given to the affected SMEs in head of Rehabilitation grant; one million in head of Up-gradation grant to individuals and up to Rs 5 million to cluster groups; BDS and capacity building support of Rs 0.3 million in the shape of matching grants to affected SMEs.
The grant application forms are available on the website of SMEDA as well as office of SMEDA in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In addition to SMEDA offices the forms are also available at Project Management Units (PMUs) at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Fata and the designated branches of the Habib Bank Limited. In order to facilitate SMEs from Fata, the forms have also been placed at the offices of political agents Under the project, the SMEDA would soon start conducting seminars in different chambers and trade associations to create awareness and enable the affected business community to take benefit from the programme.