Loans for youth.

THE Kamyab Jawan Programme launched by Prime Minister Imran Khan to deliver on one of his party's major election promises has wide scope. It aims primarily at creating new jobs and reducing poverty by disbursing interest-free microloans and subsidised small loans among young men and women, especially from the country's 45 most backward districts, for setting up new businesses or financing existing small enterprises. The scheme is also expected to facilitate the establishment of smart science laboratories at seminaries in order to bring the students there into the mainstream, while also providing skills training to the youth in collaboration with the industry. Further, teachers will be trained to impart skills and provide vocational training, thus narrowing the skilled labour gap between industry and the services sector. Overall, the various initiatives under this programme will cost Rs100bn. Out of the total amount, 25pc is reserved for women. If spent well, all this money, which is to come from the UNDP, is projected to reduce poverty and youth unemployment in the country.

This is not the first scheme that has been launched in the name of empowering the youth. Successive governments have undertaken similar ventures in the past, with varying degrees of success. More recently, the Nawaz Sharif administration had introduced a similar, multipronged initiative - the Prime Minister's Youth Loan Programme - shortly after coming to power in 2013, promising to give subsidised loans cumulatively amounting to Rs100bn to the youth over a period of five...

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