PESHAWAR: Business community urged commercial banks to provide soft loans for promotion of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and improve lending ratio and facilitate business community.

Traders also called for bringing down the current interest rate to single digit.

They urged government and financial institutions to adopt business-friendly policies and play a role in revival of trade and economic activities to create employment opportunities and to lead the province on sustainable prosperity and progress.

SBP increases clean lending limit for SMEs by 100pc

They expressed these views during an awareness seminar on Islamic Banking jointly organised by SCCI and State Bank of Pakistan here at the Chamber House.

Qazi Abdul Samad on occasion delivered a comprehensive presentation, highlighting the significance of Islamic banking.

While in his opening remarks, SBP chief Manager Waqar Ali appraised participants about initiatives for creating awareness of Islamic banking.

The senior SBP official said the central bank is working on four key frameworks including regulatory, Shariah Governance, Outreach of Market Development, Basic Awareness, and collaboration with academia, industries and business.

Fazal Moqeem, president of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry expressed grave concern over rising commercial banks’ deposits against lending their lending ratio in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He said KP was marked as ‘red-zone’ by commercial banks, which is tantamount to discrimination with the business community and people of the province. He said the lending ratio of commercial banks is very low.

SCCI chief stressed the need for provision of loans on easy terms to flourish business and industries in K-P.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024