Tameer Bank appointed partner as Punjab government gears up for disbursal of digital interest-free loans

Karachi – October 17, 2016: Scaling up its m-agriculture along with digital & financial inclusion initiatives to a colossal level, Pakistan’s premier microfinance Bank Tameer, has joined hands with the government of Punjab for giving out smart digital loans to farmers across Punjab worth in aggregate over PKR 2 billion for over 35,000 farmers; total scheme announced by the government of Punjab is over PKR 77 billion for 450,000 farmers. The partnership will go on to strengthen the collective efforts put in order to bolster Pakistan’s standing as a major agricultural country by increasing overall yield and productivity of the crops.

Tameer Microfinance Bank has been appointed partner Bank of the historic programme that will go on to transform the socio-economic outlook of the country by providing digital loans, digital disbursements and repayment to farmers across Punjab. The scheme will not only provide interest-free loans but will also address long-existent issues faced by local farmers through smart phone based crop and weather advisory and comprehensive consultancy services besides maintaining a digital platform to empower the farmers by keeping real-time monitoring and performance evaluation.

To help farmers benefit from the host of digital services, the government of Punjab will distribute smartphones under the scheme to allow farmers access to E-credit scheme (Digital Wallet), weather Alerts, Crop Calendar, E-Zarri Baithak, Agri TV and more.

Commenting about the development, President & CEO Tameer Bank Ali Riaz Chaudhry said: “It gives us immense pleasure to be part of this historic scheme to revitalize Punjab’s agriculture potential. We are bringing in Telenor Pakistan, Tameer Bank and Easypaisa’s technological infrastructure to support and expedite the government of Punjab’s interest-free loans scheme for small farmers. We are positive that through calculated and focused implementation, monitoring and support, we will be able to help the farmers increase their yield many folds and contribute additionally to the socio-economic progress of the country. We thank Chief Minister Punjab, Mian Shehbaz Sharif for trusting in Tameer Microfinance Bank as the partner.

The Punjab government’s interest-free loan scheme is being led by Ministry of Agriculture & Finance in support from State Bank of Pakistan, Punjab Institute of Technology Board, Ministry of Finance.

About Tameer Microfinance Bank Limited

Tameer Microfinance Bank Limited (TMFB) is the first scheduled and largest Microfinance Bank in Pakistan and a part of Telenor group. Incorporated in 2005, it provides micro‐finance, branchless banking and related financial services targeted to the underserved segment. In 2009, it jointly launched easypaisa with Telenor Pakistan. Tameer Bank currently has 176 customer touch points and over 75,000 agents nationwide; and offers a wide range of financial services including Deposits, Loans, Mobile Accounts, Peer to Peer money transfers, Health Insurance, Remittances, Cash management services, Bank on Wheels. The credit rating company JCR-VIS has reaffirmed the entity rating of Tameer at “A+/A-1”. Outlook on the assigned rating is ‘Stable’ as of April 28th, 2016.