SECP clears a Rs 3 million Shariah financing app for small shopkeepers

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan has approved Shaamilkar Tajir, a digital app offering Shariah-compliant financing of up to Rs 3 million per applicant to micro-entrepreneurs and small businesses. The money is not handed over as cash: it is credit to buy inventory from suppliers already on the platform's approved list.

The app was built by Shaamilkar Financial Services, an SECP-licensed entity. SECP Chairman Dr Kabir Ahmed Sidhu said technology-enabled financing can widen access to formal credit for businesses the banks have not served.

Why this matters to a shop in Lahore or Sukkur

The typical kiryana store, mobile shop or auto parts dealer in Pakistan does not borrow from a bank. It borrows from its own supplier, on an informal running account, at a price buried in the invoice. There is no rate you can compare and no record that builds a credit history.

The formal alternative has been growing fast. Licensed lending non-banking finance companies disbursed roughly Rs 253 billion through 2.5 million loans to micro, small and medium enterprises between July 2025 and June 2026. That is an average ticket of about Rs 101,000, which tells you the bulk of it is very small borrowing.

A Rs 3 million ceiling is considerably above that average. It puts a wholesaler or a small manufacturer in range, not only a corner shop.

What to check before you sign up

Shariah-compliant does not mean free. In a murabaha or similar structure the financier buys the goods and sells them to you at a marked-up price payable later. That mark-up is the cost of the money. Ask for it as an annual percentage and compare it against what your supplier already charges you and against the market benchmark: twelve-month KIBOR was last at 12.32 percent, and the State Bank policy rate is 11.5 percent. If the implied annual cost is far above that, the credit line is not cheap.

Three more things to confirm before you commit:

1. Which suppliers are on the list. If your usual supplier is not on it, the facility is worth less to you than it looks.
2. What happens if you pay late. In Islamic structures a late payment charge is usually routed to charity, not to the financier, but the default still goes on your record.
3. Whether the entity is licensed. SECP publishes its register of licensed NBFCs. Check the name on the register, not on the advertisement.

The wider point

SECP has spent two years opening the NBFC space to digital lenders after a wave of complaints about predatory nano-lending apps. Approval of a supplier-linked, Shariah-structured product is a deliberate shift away from short-tenor cash loans on a phone. Whether it reaches the trader who needs it depends on the supplier network more than on the technology.

If you are working out what a purchase actually costs your business after tax, our sales tax calculator handles the input and output side, and the KIBOR page shows where the benchmark sits.