LAHORE: The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) has joined hands with the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMA Pakistan) and digital financial platform DigiKhata to improve financial documentation, strengthen creditworthiness and expand access to formal financing for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
The partnerships come as the government targets increasing SME financing to Rs2.2 trillion and expanding the number of SME borrowers to 775,000 by June 2028. The SMEDA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the ICMA Pakistan and a Letter of Intent (LoI) with DigiKhata at its Lahore office on Thursday.
The agreement with the ICMA Pakistan focuses on joint initiatives to improve financial literacy, accounting practices and financial management among MSMEs through capacity-building programmes and advisory services.
These initiatives will help entrepreneurs develop bookkeeping, financial reporting and documentation skills, enabling them to meet banking requirements and improve their access to institutional credit.
SMEDA General Manager Raja Hassanein Javed said strengthening business documentation, bank readiness and creditworthiness was essential to achieving the government’s SME financing targets. ICMA Pakistan President Muhammad Yasin stressed the need for coordinated efforts to improve financial management capabilities and make small businesses more bankable.
Under its agreement with DigiKhata, the SMEDA will promote digital financial management tools to help businesses replace manual bookkeeping with organised digital records, improving transparency and facilitating credit assessment.
Speaking on the occasion, DigiKhata CEO Adnan Aslam said the platform had one million active users and offered services including lending, export facilitation and account-opening facilities under the State Bank of Pakistan’s Open Banking Framework.
The SMEDA officials said the partnerships would support enterprise formalisation, improve access to finance and enhance MSME competitiveness.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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