Mechanism being developed for self-employed people to report status

Economic Minister Fayyaz Ismail has announced that those who are self-employed can also apply for loans provided by SME Development Finance Corporation (SDFC).

Minister Fayyaz in a tweet published Saturday said even self-employed workers can apply for the loans issued by SDFC and arrangements will soon be made such that they can report their status via the Job Centre portal once the portal is modified to cater to self-employed people.

Even now, self-employed people or sole traders can apply for the loans offered by SDFC and the corporation is working to provide loans to the maximum number of people as much as possible, said minister Fayyaz.

“What SDFC can do is limited and will try to cover as many people as possible. SDFC will not capitalize on interest”, said the minister.

In a move to reduce the economic loss faced by businesses, SDFC has deferred loan repayment for 6 months and reduced the interest rate of those 6 months to 4%.

SDFC has been disbursing loans for small and medium-sized enterprises since March last year. It grants loans for operating guest houses, agriculture, start-up business and business expansion. The interest rate of these loans are small, and its equity amount is smaller than other loans.