Rs 200 million grants under ERKF approved for 180 crisis-hit SMEs

The Economic Revitalization of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA (ERKF) Project funded by Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) for the rehabilitation and up-gradation of SMEs has so far approved an amount of Rs200 million for about 180 crisis-hit SMEs. Under the Second Round, the project has received tremendous response from the business community of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as more than 3000 SMEs have been applied for grants.
The successful SMEs also include 24 women SMEs including 21 up-gradation grants and three rehabilitation cases. The project has also approved a cluster up-gradation grant worth Rs 4 million. SMEs from all terrorism and calamity hit districts of the province, particularly from Malakand division have submitted applications with the Project Unit (PU) of the project established under the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA). According to sources that a large number of applications have been received from Lower Dir followed by Swat and Chitral respectively.