SECP focusing on MSMEs for the country’s economic growth: Chairman

Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) Chairman Aamir Khan on Wednesday said the SECP has placed significant focus on serving the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) as they play a vital role in the economic development of the country.

To improve access to finance for the MSMEs, agri borrowers and rural enterprises, SECP has already operationalized the Secured Transaction Registry (STR), the SECP chairman said this while addressing to the interactive session on impact and approach in digitizing the Small and Medium Enterprises and MSMEs.

He said so far, more than 125,000 security interests have been recorded in the registry.

The SECP chairman said this has allowed small businesses to obtain credit against their movable assets.

He said SECP is focusing on simplifying the Private Equity and Venture Capital (PE&VC) regime so that the high growth and knowledge-based start-ups can have access to long term capital, required to grow and expand.

He said the most significant measure of SECP has been the introduction of the regulatory sandbox, under which six concepts were approved in the first cohort. This initiative will encourage entrepreneurs and businesses to try and develop new ideas and, in the process, serve the end-users, and expand financial inclusion, he said.

The SECP chairman said, “I would like to welcome new lending group Finja for their focus to provide digital credit to MSMEs and the people that they employ.”

He said this intervention ends up encouraging others to focus on launching businesses that dovetail their business aspirations, with the needs of the clientele they are together.

Aamir said lending Service Finja, the dual-regulated new age fintech, has focused to provide digital credit to MSMEs and the people that they employ.

The Finja has digitally processed loans with a throughput of $10 million to MSMEs and their employees, using their proprietary machine learning and artificial intelligence led algorithms and analytics, he informed.

He said these loans are disbursed and collected digitally, eliminating cash-heavy, time and cost intensive processes.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Co-founder Finja Qasif Shahid said, “We’re fully committed to digitizing the complete supply-chain ecosystem in the country.”

“Our association with SECP will serve as a precursor to grow the country’s most important segment.” he said.