KARACHI: A series of training videos have been launched in national and regional languages, by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), with a vision to create awareness about agriculture-financing products and procedures, for the farming communities across the country, especially in the underserved areas.
According to a press release on Monday, Khushhali Microfinance Bank Limited (KMFBL) has joined-hands with the SBP and all the agriculture-lending banks, who are disseminating these insightful videos, through the relevant digital-platforms and social-media.
The stakeholders of Pakistan’s economy understand that; Lack of awareness about agriculture-financing products and formal lending-services, is a major challenge for banks, it hinders outreach to the rural-markets. The SBP is inspiring the financial sector for Capacity-building, besides launching various initiatives for awareness, promotion and development of agriculture-financing in the country. However, farming communities at the grassroots level are still largely unaware and are not able to optimally utilize these secured and regulated financial services.
In order to broaden the scope of SBP’s campaigns, KMFBL and all other prestigious financial institutions are now being engaged to explore the potential of digital-media, driven by the rapid penetration of internet and increased usage of smartphones across Pakistan. Revolutionary technologies are thus creating many great opportunities for disseminating information. These innovative solutions have enabled precise penetration of the target segments, promising better results, timely outreach and cost-effectiveness than the conventional awareness sessions. The Financial-Literacy videos by SBP also ensure easier comprehension and longer retention.
The first video in this series covers the overall agriculture-financing landscape of the country, SBP’s initiatives and GoP’s schemes, all from a farmer’s perspective. Keeping in view the need for enhancing accessibility of credit in the diverse underserved areas, this video has also been translated into three regional languages apart from Urdu; i.e. Sindhi, Balochi and Pashto. The next two videos in the series focus on crop and non-crop sectors, including information regarding agriculture-loan products and diving deeper into the procedures and documentation required for both segments.
It is expected that these videos will help the farming community to overcome their reluctance in availing credit from banks. To achieve broader out-reach, agricultural-lending banks will also develop similar informative videos on products and financing-opportunities to inform the agro-based businesses.
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