Madhyabindu Municipality in Nawalparasi East (Nawalpur) district has started the process to provide concessional loans to unemployed youths under the youth self-employment campaign launched by the government.
To this effect, an agreement has been reached between Agricultural Development Bank and the municipality, said the municipality mayor Chandra Bahadur Rana. The campaign has been incorporated in the policies and programmes of the fiscal year, 2020/21.
According to the agreement, Rs 30 million loans (Rs 15 million from the municipality and the bank each) would be released for the programme.
The agreement was signed among Rana and chief administrative officer at the municipality Narayan Prasad Sapkota from the municipality and Raghunath Neupane, manager of the bank's Gandaki provincial office, Pokhara and Bhuwaneshwor Pandey, chief of the bank's Kawasoti branch from the bank side. Following this agreement, the way for the bank to provide concessional loans has opened.
The bank as per the agreement provides loans at 3.50 per cent interest to men and at 2 per cent interest to women, said Rana.
The municipality will recommend concessional loans to those who have returned home from foreign employment and those who want to do their business at home, he said.
A beneficiary will get from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1.5 million and the loans should be cleared within five years. "The date to clear the loans may be extended as per need," he said.
In this regard, there has been coordination with the municipality to stop the tendency of not repaying concessional loans, said Neupane. There are around 3,000 unemployed youths within the municipality, said Rana.
Source: RSS
