The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) and the Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN) have pledged to jointly work to support microenterprises in the country.

Representatives of the two organizations met at SMEDA’s Head Office in Lahore to discuss the avenues of mutual cooperation on building a strong understanding of the microenterprise landscape, promotion of financial literacy and improving access to finance.

Mr Socrat Aman Rana, CEO SMEDA, along with Mr Ashfaq Ahmed, GM Micro-enterprise Policy and Program Design, spearheaded the meeting. Whereas, PMN was represented by Mr Syed Mohsin Ahmed, CEO PMN, and Mr Ali Basharat, Head of PMN.

Welcoming the guests, Mr Socrat Aman Rana, CEO SMEDA, said, “We greatly value PMN’s role in advancing financial inclusion in Pakistan and we see substantial alignment in our shared mission for enabling the underserved microenterprises. We look forward to exploring how a symbiotic relationship built upon each other’s strengths can be established to create a meaningful impact for the sector.”

He said Micro and SMEs play a key role in Pakistan’s economy by contributing 40 percent to GDP, 78pc to non-agriculture employment and generating 30pc of exports. “There are more than seven million small and medium economic establishments in the country and 95pc of businesses employ fewer than 10 people. In addition, 28pc of households are engaged in some sort of home-based economic activity,” he added.

While stressing the need to uplift microfinance borrowers, he pointed out that there were over 11 million active loan borrowers with an average loan size of Rs55,000 within the microfinance sector of Pakistan.

While emphasizing the importance to make collaborative efforts to improve microfinancing in the country, Syed Mohsin Ahmed, CEO Pakistan Microfinance Network, said, “We look forward to joining hands with SMEDA and hope that together we will make a meaningful impact to the microenterprise sector by improving access to finance and working on other areas”.

He also drew attention to the need to uplift the microenterprises by helping them pass on to small and medium enterprises.

Both organizations agreed on the need to uplift the microfinance sector, especially for small farmers, agriculture and livestock. They also expressed their desire to formalize the collaboration by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the days ahead.