Rs230bn financing for female entrepreneurs shatters SBP targets

Pakistani banks – microfinance ones in particular – have extended financing to women entrepreneurs worth Rs230 billion in the past year against a target of Rs50 billion, said State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Jameel Ahmad on Wednesday.

The country is gearing up to increase the participation of female population in the formal economy.

“There is now widespread understanding that no nation can grow when half of its population is excluded from the financial system,” Ahmad said while speaking at the central bank’s second annual celebration on ‘Pakistan Women Entrepreneurship Day 2025.’

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“Research by the World Economic Forum, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and McKinsey suggest that including women fully in the workforce – as well as in leadership positions – is not only a matter of fairness, but also a powerful driver of economic growth and resilience.”

Ahmad noted that financing to women entrepreneurs set a new benchmark of Rs230 billion between November 2024 and October 2025. “This is more than four-fold increase in the financing against the set target of Rs50 billion for the period,” he said while talking to media on the sidelines of the event.

Accordingly, Pakistani banks have disbursed 974,000 loans to women in 12 months (November 2024 to October 2025) – a testament to expanding outreach and growing trust.

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“Yet, the portfolio breakdown indicates that meaningful scale-up is still ahead of us,” he said.

Nearly 93% of these loans amounting to Rs113 billion, “fall under microfinance, indicating that most women remain clustered in micro and entry-level segments.”

At the upper end, 611 women-led corporate and commercial enterprises accessed financing of Rs58 billion, “representing just 1% of all loans disbursed by commercial banks – a clear indication of the structural barriers that still persist,” the central bank chief said.

Ahmed said contributions by women extended across diverse sectors of the economy, including agriculture, manufacturing, technology, retail and communication.

“We need to take this momentum forward to ensure that our female population have access to the supportive environment where they can flourish and contribute more effectively to our economy.”

Over 14,600 women have joined the banking workforce in the last three years, raising the overall ratio of female employees from 13 to 17%, he said.

As a result of collective efforts, women’s financial inclusion has risen from 4% to 52%, and the gender gap has been narrowed from 47% in 2018 to 30% in 2025. More than 17.6 million new women-owned bank accounts have been added since 2021, reflecting active engagement in the financial system, he said.