Smeda Signs ICMA MoU and DigiKhata LoI to Expand MSME Financing Access

Smeda signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ICMA Pakistan and a Letter of Intent with DigiKhata at its Lahore office on Thursday to improve financial documentation and access to formal financing for micro, small and medium enterprises. Business Recorder reported the partnerships support a government target of Rs2.2 trillion in SME financing and 775,000 SME borrowers by June 2028.

What the ICMA Pakistan MoU Covers

The agreement with ICMA Pakistan focuses on joint initiatives to improve financial literacy, accounting practices and financial management among MSMEs through capacity-building programmes and advisory services. The initiatives are intended to help entrepreneurs develop bookkeeping, financial reporting and documentation skills so they can meet banking requirements and improve access to institutional credit.

Smeda General Manager Raja Hassanein Javed said strengthening business documentation, bank readiness and creditworthiness was essential to achieving the government's SME financing targets. ICMA Pakistan President Muhammad Yasin stressed the need for coordinated efforts to improve financial management capabilities and make small businesses more bankable.

DigiKhata's Digital Records Role

Under its agreement with DigiKhata, Smeda will promote digital financial management tools that help businesses replace manual bookkeeping with organised digital records, improving transparency and facilitating credit assessment. DigiKhata CEO Adnan Aslam said the platform had one million active users and offered services including lending, export facilitation and account-opening facilities under the State Bank of Pakistan's Open Banking Framework.

Smeda officials said the partnerships would support enterprise formalisation, improve access to finance and enhance MSME competitiveness.

Smeda's Earlier MSME Finance Partnerships

According to akta.pro company records, Smeda signed a collaboration with Pakistan Mortgage and Investment Company in February 2026 to enhance microenterprise access to finance, with explicit focus on underserved segments and women entrepreneurs. The same records show an Implementation Cooperation Framework Agreement with the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan in February 2026 to provide on-ground support for MSME export readiness, including training and finance access.

Prior Steps Toward SME Credit Access

In September 2026, Smeda and the State Bank of Pakistan held a seminar on cluster-based lending to improve SME financing access, where SME financing was reported up 30.5% year-on-year to Rs901.6 billion and borrowers up 15.18% to 318,585, with Smeda developing a credit scoring model for banks, Business Recorder reported. In October 2026, Smeda and Alibaba.com agreed to train 10,000 Pakistani SMEs and onboard up to 2,000 businesses to Alibaba's B2B platform, offering financial support of up to Rs150,000 each, the same outlet reported.