Pakistan targets Rs700 billion in housing loans and new SME digital portal

The Pakistani government has set a target to provide housing finance for 125,000 residential units this year under the Prime Minister’s Apna Ghar scheme. This initiative aims for a proposed lending volume of Rs700 billion. To date, 71,690 loans worth Rs426 billion have been approved under the scheme, with Rs76 billion disbursed to 13,214 borrowers.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has also ordered the launch of a digital portal for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by the end of November. This portal is intended to ease access to bank financing, allow real-time monitoring of credit, and provide updated information on bank lending, including the status of letters of credit. The government aims to increase SME lending from the current Rs1,137 billion to Rs1,500 billion, supporting 565,000 businesses by June 2027.

Additional measures discussed include expanding digital banking to allow consumers to apply for smaller loans without visiting physical branches, improving coordination among financial institutions, and digitizing land records in provinces outside of Punjab.