December 20, 2021 (MLN): The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has set a credit disbursement target for the agriculture sector at Rs1.7trillion for FY22, which is 21% higher from FY21, SBP tweeted today.
As per the monthly economic outlook, during July-Oct FY22, the agriculture credit disbursement increased by 6.5% to Rs 381.3 billion compared to Rs358 billion during the same period last year.
In an annual meeting of the Agricultural Credit Advisory Committee chaired by Reza Baqir, SBP reviewed the performance of banks as per which, 50 financial institutions together achieved 91% of agriculture credit target; 5 major banks achieved 100% and 14 mid-level banks achieved over 93% of agriculture credit target for FY21.
He lauded banks performance in achieving an unprecedented level of agriculture credit disbursement of Rs1.4 trillion in FY21 and announces the FY22 target as Rs1.7trillion.
Furthermore, SBP informed that it has introduced a scoring model to rank banks according to key indicators and targets to measure the performance of banks. It also designates banks volunteering to serve as a champion/lead bank in an underserved province/area.
More steps to increase agriculture credit include establishing helpdesks in underserved areas to facilitate farmers and launching collaborative awareness drives, SBP noted.
