The PM’s Kamyab Jawan Program Provided Me A Platform To Fulfill My Dream And Made Me Successful In Attaining Financial Empowerment.
Safia Qureshi, a young qualified girl from Peshawar, had never thought that her unique business idea of `Roof Top Gardening’ will so easily get flourished in such a short period, but the financial support from Prime Minister’s Kamyab Jawan Program launched in October 2019 has helped to make her dream materialized.
A micro loan of just Rs. 265,000 under the first phase of PM’s Kamyab Jawan Program has supported Safia Qureshi to launch her entrepreneurship and get financial empowerment within few months. She said, “After completion of education, I had plan of introducing gardening in a new and innovative way, but due to lack of resources I was confused about implementation of my idea.”
Talking to APP, Safia Qureshi said after getting awareness about the PM’s Kamyab Jawan Program through social media, I forthwith applied for loan by sharing my business idea. She said soon after submission of my application, I received reply that my application has been approved and was asked to contact the relevant bank for obtaining loan.
After approval of application and transfer of loan amount to my account, I started my business and received a very positive response that was beyond my expectation, she added. “The PM’s Kamyab Program Provided Me A Platform To Fulfill My Dream And Made Me Successful In Attaining Financial Empowerment”, Safia Remarked. Like Safia many other youngsters also availed the opportunity of official support in shape of soft term loans for starting up new business or expansion of the existing one.
Sajid Mehmood, a young goldsmith also had dreams of starting his own business after losing job during corona lock-down causing slump in business. The PM’s Kamyab Jawan Program helped Sajid Mehmood to start his own small shop of gold bangle manufacturing at famous bullion market of Peshawar at Andersher area.“I was working with someone as a helper for the last one decade and wanted to have my own business set up after learning the skill of bangle making,” Sajid told this agency.
He said someone has informed him about PM’s Kamyab Jawan Program through which he could apply for loan to fulfill my dream. “I was not sure about getting some financial assistance, but applied for Rs. 0.5 million loans by sharing some basic information and business plan”, Sajid Mehmood added. Yasir Khattak, a resident of Saeed Abad, Peshawar, is also a young beneficiary of the Kamyab Jawan Program who has started stationary business in nearby Hassan Gari area and making a handsome earning of around Rs. 35 to 40,000 per month. He said that he was an unemployed young boy and was very much concerned about future of his life and family.
The PM’s Kamyab Jawan Program came as a blessing as it has helped me standing on my own feet by starting a small business, he commented. Yasir obtained a shop on a monthly rent of Rs. 6000 and purchased some stock of books, copies and other stationary related items. He said the response was very encouraging as he made handsome earning on daily basis, giving him good profit to meet his business expenditures besides other necessary spending.
Focal Person Kamyab Jawan Program, Muhammad Saleh said, “Prime Minister Imran Khan is of the belief that without involvement and engagement of youth in commercial activity, our country cannot develop and prosper that is why government is focusing on empowerment of youngsters through launching of different programs.”
He said that youth constitutes more than 60 percent of Pakistan’s population, making our country second largest in Asia in regard with youngsters’ population. A comprehensive strategy was needed for education, skill enhancement, empowerment and positive engagement of youth for which government chalked out a `National Youth Development Framework’ through consultancy of local and international experts. Under the Youth Entrepreneurship Program, Rs. 100 billion would be disbursed among youth for starting their business, he added.
Saleh said through this loan, youth would not only start their businesses, but would also provide jobs to others to work with them. Another big initiative taken by government was launching of `Skill for All’ program at a cost of Rs. 10 billion. He said through this program different skills were imparted to country’s youth not only on conventional professions like carpenter, mason, electrician, but for the first time in this history of the country students are learning about Hi-tech computing, robotics, digitization etc. About 37,000 plus students were enrolled in more than 500 technical institutions across the country and were getting training on latest skills, he added.
Muhammad Saleh said people within the age of 18 to 45 years could apply for the loan. He said earlier they had only public sector banks for disbursement of loans, but now after popularity of the program around 21 banks were providing services and even Islamic banking service was also available for those who did not want to obtain loan through conventional banking. He also made it clear that loans were provided in a transparent manner on merit basis without any political interference and recommendation
This news was originally published at Eye Pakistan.