{
  "id": 18613618,
  "title": "SMEDA partners with ICMA, DigiKhata",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/07/smeda-partners-with-icma-digikhata",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-11-07T01:28:55.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Business Recorder",
    "slug": "business-recorder",
    "url": "https://www.brecorder.com/news/40447869/smeda-partners-with-icma-digikhata"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) has formed strategic partnerships with the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMA Pakistan) and digital financial platform DigiKhata in an effort to bolster financial documentation, creditworthiness, and access to formal financing for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). These collaborations come as the government sets a target to increase SME financing to Rs2.2 trillion and expand the number of SME borrowers to 775,000 by June 2028. SMEDA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ICMA Pakistan and a Letter of Intent (LoI) with DigiKhata at its Lahore office. The agreement with ICMA Pakistan aims to enhance financial literacy, accounting practices, and financial management among MSMEs through capacity-building programs and advisory services. Meanwhile, SMEDA's partnership with DigiKhata focuses on promoting digital financial management tools to replace manual bookkeeping with organized digital records, enhancing transparency and facilitating credit assessment.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}