PESHAWAR, Dec 6: The Grants Review and Monitoring Committee of Smeda, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa industries department and Fata Secretariat on Thursday approved Rs40 million for 58 small medium enterprises in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

The decision was made during a meeting of the committee at the office of Smeda here.

According to a statement, the ERKF Project funded by Multi Donors Trust Fund (MDTF) has so far approved 182 grants of Rs125 million for the conflict-hit businesses.

The Project has provided relief to SMEs belonging to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata, while applications of many are pending approval.

ERKF Project Manager Sarmad Khan told participants that the grants would total 300 by the end of June and exceed targets in order to provide relief on emergency basis to businesses affected by conflicts.

He said the Project had resulted in revival of silk units of Swat and marble industry of KP and Fata in addition to supporting other sectors, including furniture, crafts and trading.

Mr Sarmad said the Project was funded under MDTF grant of $20 million and would be executed by World Bank through Smeda, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa industries department and Fata Secretariat.

He said the SME development component of the Project had an allocation of $14 million with a share of $9.1 million and $4.9 million for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata respectively.

The ERKP project manager said the SME development component was being implemented by Smeda and that grants were being disbursed to eligible SMEs.

According to him, there are three subcomponents of the grant programme i.e. rehabilitation, upgradation supports, and capacity building and business development.

The rehabilitation component provides up to Rs2.5 million to the eligible enterprises, which may be used for reconstruction of basic infrastructure and acquiring, repairing machinery and equipment.

As for the subcomponent of upgradation, it provides up to Rs1 million matching grants to SMEs for improving business productivity and efficiency. In case of groups a matching grant up to Rs5 million is provided for cluster development programmes.

Mr Sarmad said the subcomponent of capacity building and business development provided up to Rs300,000 for capacity building of SMEs in partnership with the Business Edge Programme of International Finance Corporation and through procurement of business development services required by SMEs.