The government has disbursed soft loans amounting to Rs 33.7 billion among 21,583 youth under the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES) during the fiscal year 2021-22.
According to the Annual Plan 2022-23, the major chunk of total loan disbursement under YES went to the male budding entrepreneurs who received subsidized loans amounting to Rs 30,963.8 million.
Out of the total disbursement, subsidized loans worth Rs 2,611.5 million were given to 2,703 female entrepreneurs, whereas only seven transgender persons received Rs 20.3 million under the scheme.
The previous government launched the YES with Rs 100 billion allocation in 2018 to help youth start their own businesses by providing them loans up to Rs 25 million.
Likewise, “Skill for All” programme is being implemented country-wide at an estimated cost of Rs 9.9 billion. The major scope of the project covered conventional and high tech/high end training.
An amount of Rs 5,000 million was allocated for the programme in the fiscal year 2021-22. Out of total allocation, funds amounting to Rs 2,725 million have been spent so far to impart trainings to the youth in different trades .
Among the targets achieved under the scheme included training of 74,737 youth in conventional and high tech/high end trades, skill testing and certification of 23,000 youth under RPL, 100 TVET qualification out of target of 200, specific facilitation centers in 10 cities, apprenticeship training of 2000 youth, 535 TVET institutes accredited nationally and 10 TVET institutes accredited internationally.
An agreement was also signed with Directorate of Religious Education for establishing 70 TVET labs in the seminaries.
27 TVET labs were also established for 15 selected schools in Islamabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan.Besides, eight technical qualifications were developed, while a process for hiring 54 TVET Instructors in 15 selected schools was underway.
