ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Youth Affairs, Muhammad Usman Dar Thursday said the government would provide soft loans to fishermen under the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES) of Kamyab Jawan Programme for boosting fisheries sector.

In a tweet, the SAPM said the initiative was discussed during a meeting with Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Haider Zaidi. He expressed his hope that the move would help boosting the fisheries sector.

Usman Dar said, “So far 8,800 applications [of fishermen] had been received under the Kamyab Jawan Programme".

The YES was launched under the banner of Kamyab Jawan Programme in October last year under which Rs. 100 billion allocated for the youth to provide them soft loans for initiation of their own businesses.

Recently, the government has enhanced the scope of YES which was meant to offer huge amount of concessionary loans ranging between Rs. 100,000 and Rs. 25 million to the youth. Earlier, it was limited to Rs. 5 million only.