Government to Provide Grants to Small-Scale Women Entrepreneurs

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July 26: The government has adopted a policy to provide grants up to Rs 600,000 to women who have been running small-scale food refinery industries. The policy will come into effect in the current fiscal year 2017/18.

The Food Technology and Standard Maintenance Department under the Ministry of Agriculture had proposed the grant to encourage industries run solely by women. Producers of chips, biscuits, pickles, chocolates among others fall under this category, according to the department’s senior food research officer Huma Wakim.

According to Wakim, this program was initiated to encourage women entrepreneurs and to discourage them from seeking foreign employment.

The grant will be provided to women entrepreneurs under various headings including for equipment, building infrastructure, maintaining cleanliness as well as quality and production enhancement.

The process of grant distribution will start after the ministry allocates budget, informed Wakim. According to her, the department will issue a notice one month prior to selecting the factories for grant distribution. However, factories that are in the process of opening cannot apply for the grant this year. A monitoring team formed by the department will carry out field inspection before providing the grant.   

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