Prime Minister Imran Khan launched 'Kamyab Naujawan Programme' on Thursday and stated that out of Rs 100 billion allocated for the programme, 75 percent would be disbursed to the male and 25 percent to female youth through a transparent system.
Speaking at the launching ceremony, Prime Minister Khan said he would himself monitor the programme to ensure transparency and merit, adding disbursement of loans would be made under three categories - interest-free, concessionary and regular loans.
Up to Rs 100,000 would be provided to the weakest youth in 45 districts interest free and from Rs 100,000 to Rs 500,000 concessionary loans would be available for the youth and under the third category, from Rs 0.5 million to Rs 5 million would be available for youth, added the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister said the government would also provide loans to the workers of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) if they meet the merit, adding that the government has also decided to use Rs 10 billion for skill education.
He said one hundred smart laboratories will be established to impart modern skills to youth and 25,0000 youth would also be attached with the industry to learn skill education. Over 500 skill laboratories would be set up for providing skill education to the students of seminaries as "these are our own children and they must have opportunity to become engineers and doctors."
The government has also decided to create Youth Development Foundation where youth from across the country would be able to interact about employment opportunities and the program would be monitored by Prime Minister Office. There would be no discrimination with the minorities.
He said the Green Youth Movement Program would be launched and membership of the youth would be done, adding national internship for youth would be initiated in various industries.
The programme will benefit one million youth and loans would be disbursed from the branches of National Bank of Pakistan, Bank of Punjab and Bank of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The government believes that the programme would help manage the problem of unemployment and reduce poverty in the long run. The youth can submit applications online from all over the country, which would be selected after due scrutiny of allocations in a transparent manner and the nominated banks would review the applications through a secret scorecard and take the decision of selecting or rejecting any application between 35 to 45 days.
The banks would give detailed reasons for selecting or rejecting any application. Over 200 feasibilities have been prepared and are available online for the youth with regard to different businesses and before this program 175,000 loans are available for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and after this program 139,000 new loans would be available for this sector.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019