First-ever Mera Pakistan Mera Ghar Mela.

Byline: SHABBIR KAZMI

In an overwhelming response to the first ever Mera Pakistan Mera Ghar (MPMG) Mela organized by State Bank of Pakistan in Faisalabad, banks logged in applications of Rs18 billion from applicants. In the two-days Mela, held on March 19-20 more than 30,000 people visited to obtain information about the MPMG and apply for loans through banks' one-window facilitation. Against the applications logged in, banks provided conditional approvals of around Rs7.4 billion loans.

At the inauguration ceremony of the Mela, Dr. Reza Baqir, Governor State Bank in his keynote address took the audience through MPMG journey. He mentioned that through continuous efforts by SBP, Government, NAPHDA and banks, the number of applications for financing and their approvals are consistently on the rise as banks approved over Rs4.5 billion and disbursed around Rs2.3 billion loans per week.

As a result of the MPMG scheme, applications for financing for affordable housing that was almost non-existent around 15 months ago reached to Rs357 billions of which Rs157 billions of applications have been approved and Rs56 billion disbursed.

Inauguration ceremony was also addressed by Faiz Ullah Kamoka, Chairman National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance and Farrukh Habib, Minister of State for Information. Both the speakers highlighted Government's special focus on promoting housing and construction finance, especially for the low and affordable housing.

Beneficiaries of MPMG are getting financing at fixed and subsided rate as the Government is providing subsidy for this underserved sector.

Inauguration ceremony was attended by CEOs of banks, dignitaries of Faisalabad including top businessmen, academia and media.

During the Mela, 25 banks and 28 builders/developers installed their stalls and made arrangements to receive applications, processing of applications after eCIB clearance, calculating installment amount and giving conditional approval letters to the applicants.

Despite, scorching heat, long queues of interested applicants were seen on banks stalls. In order to create healthy competition among banks, their performance during Mela were measured against five categories and made public to recognize their efforts. The results of this competition were as follows:

* Meezan Bank for having most innovative stall

* Meezan Bank for having highest applications logins

* Bank of Punjab and National Bank of Pakistan being the quickest bank in offering first...