Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) during the financial year 2015-16 disbursed an amount of Rs 254 million under Economic Revitalisation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA (ERKF) Project through 281 grants, said annual report of the authority.
During the period an amount of over Rs 216 million has been disbursed under the head of rehabilitation in 235 SMEs while Rs 37.924 million distributed under the head of up-gradation. ERKF, a Multi-Donor Trust Funded (MDTF) funded project launched in 2012 is being implemented under the supervision of the World Bank (WB) with joint collaboration of Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (SMEDA) and provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The US $14 million project was designed for provision of grant to 850 SMEs of KP and FATA, but due to efficient work of the members of Grants Review and Monitoring Committee (GRMC) and staff of the Project Management Unit (PMU), the number of the beneficiaries from the project has reached to 1695.
Out of these beneficiaries 1285 hail from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while the remaining 408 belongs to FATA. The total value of the grant distributed in the militancy and flood affected SMEs is Rs 1.39 billion, out of which a share of Rs 46 million of FATA, and KP has got a share of Rs 93 million respectively.
The beneficiaries of the scheme are included both industrialists and traders of the terrorism and flood affected KP and FATA. Grants are distributed among the industrialists from marble sector to silk sector of Buner and Swat and women entrepreneurs. Besides, provision of grants to terrorism and flood affected SMEs the project has also arranged various trainings for the capacity building of both men and women entrepreneurs of the KP and FATA.
According to an official, the project have so far arranged 50 training sessions to build the capacity of 800 entrepreneurs. The beneficiaries of the training sessions are included 385 women entrepreneurs. The project has arranged such training for the members of Industrialists Association Peshawar (IAP), Swat Silk Units, Marble Association (Warsak Road), Haripur Chamber of Commerce & Industry (HCCI) and Tribal Area Chamber of Commerce & Industry (TACCI).
These trainings were given in heads of mining safety, export promotion through land and sea. Import regime and mining techniques whose purpose besides the capacity building was also including the promotion of the usage of modern technology to minimise the wastage of the mineral resources of the province. Various trainings provided to the women entrepreneurs under the project were included both traditional and non-traditional women oriented trainings. The trainings were included business management, business communications, competitive strategy & innovation, public relations, business sales and marketing, screen & block printing, fabric printing, preservation, kitchen gardening, beautician, food processing, recycling, mushroom farming and several others.
The project has been carried its activities in a very fair and transparent manner, which is also acknowledged by the national anti-graft agency, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which has certified it as corruption free project of the province and FATA.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.