Karachi, June 30, 2022 (PPI-OT):State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has launched a series of videos in national and regional languages about
agriculture financing products and procedures to create awareness among the farming communities
across the country, especially in the underserved areas. These videos will be disseminated through
social media and digital platforms of SBP and all agriculture lending banks.
Lack of awareness among farmers about agriculture financing products and services remains one of the
challenges for banks to access rural markets and extend outreach of formal financial services to the
farming communities. Capacity building and awareness creation is, therefore, an important area of focus
amongst SBP’s various initiatives for promotion and development of agriculture financing in the
country. SBP has been organizing various awareness and capacity building programs for farmers;
however, farming communities still lack awareness at the grassroots level to avail and optimally utilize
formal financial services.
In order to address this lack of awareness and to broaden the scope of SBP’s campaigns, the potential
of digital media is being explored. Rapid penetration of internet and increased usage of smartphones
across the country has presented an opportunity to harness digital platforms for disseminating
information instead of relying on conventional awareness sessions, which have limited outreach. The
use of digital medium is not only helpful in spreading the message to a wider audience in a timely and
cost effective way, but also enables such messages to have higher rate of comprehension and
retention.
The first video in this series covers the overall agriculture financing landscape of the country, SBP’s
initiatives and GoP’s schemes, all from a farmer’s perspective. Keeping in view the need for enhancing
accessibility of credit in the diverse underserved areas, this video has also been translated into three
regional languages apart from Urdu, i.e. Sindhi, Balochi and Pashto. The next two videos in the series
focus on crop and non-crop sector, including information regarding agriculture loan products, and
diving deeper into the procedures and documentation required for both segments.
It is expected that these videos will help the farming community to overcome their reluctance in
availing credit from banks. Moreover, to augment SBP’s initiative and achieve greater reach, agriculture
lending banks will also share these videos on their respective social and digital media channels which
will encourage banks to develop similar informative videos on product and financing opportunities to
agro-based businesses as well.
The following links can be used to access the videos developed for Farmers’ Financial Literacy and Awareness.
Topic
Videos Language
Link
Overview of
Video 1 – Urdu: Adaptation: https://www.sbp.org.pk/press/2022/Videos/Agri/Video1.mp4
Video 2 – Sindhi: Adaptation: https://www.sbp.org.pk/press/2022/Videos/Agri/Video2.mp4
Agricultural
Financing
Video 3 – Pashto: Adaptation: https://www.sbp.org.pk/press/2022/Videos/Agri/Video3.mp4
Video 4 – Balochi: Adaptation: https://www.sbp.org.pk/press/2022/Videos/Agri/Video4.mp4
Farm Sector
Financing
Video 5 – Urdu: Adaptation: https://www.sbp.org.pk/press/2022/Videos/Agri/Video5.mp4
Non-Farm
Sector
Financing
Video 6 – Urdu: Adaptation: https://www.sbp.org.pk/press/2022/Videos/Agri/Video6.mp4
For more information, contact:
Chief Spokesman,
State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)
Central Directorate
I.I. Chundrigar Road, Karachi, Pakistan
Tel: +92-21-111-727-111
Tel: +92-21-39212562
Fax: +92-21-39212433 – 39212436
Email: chief.spokesperson@sbp.org.pk
Website: www.sbp.org.pk