Bank Alfalah, Smeda join hands to uplift SME sector

LAHORE (Staff Reporter): The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) and Bank Alfalah entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Thursday for uplift of the SME sector across Pakistan. The MOU was signed by Bank Alfalah CEO Atif Bajwa and SMEDA Business and Sector Development Division General Manager Haroon Ahmed Khan at a ceremony held at Learning Center of the Bank Alfalah. Bajwa emphasized the need to grow SMEs from 35 percent of the economy to over 60 percent, like in the developed countries, and it was important to provide SMEs with holistic support with such private and public partnerships. Khan applauded the efforts of Bank Alfalah for the development of the SME sector in Pakistan. He also spoke about the importance of SMEs as key drivers of productivity and economic growth. He noted that SMEDA looks forward to creating synergies between the two organisations to enhance SMEs’ access to finance.
The alliance envisions creating synergies for development of SME centric programmes, improve SMEs’ access to finance and extend advisory and training support to established SMEs and entrepreneurial incubation centers in universities across Pakistan.

Published in The Nation, February 3rd, 2017