Client Name

HBL

Faculty Advisor

Dr. Noureen Ayaz

SBS Thought Leadership Areas

Investment Decision Making

SBS Thought Leadership Area Justification

Our project on Experiential Learning is really connected to Investment Decision Making because we had to figure out where to put our money to get returns and also help people. We looked at the fishing and meat export businesses to see where they needed money what risks were involved how money they could make and if our ideas would actually work. We came up with financing plans. Checked if they were good ideas by thinking about things like how much money we could make, if people could pay us back how to reduce risks and if it would all work out in the long run. This process was very similar to what people do in life when they make investment decisions, where they have to think about if an idea is good what risks are involved and if it fits with what they want to achieve. With this project we used Investment Decision Making to suggest ideas that could help HBL grow its development finance portfolio and support businesses, in Pakistan that export things.

Aligned SDGs

GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

Aligned SDGs Justification

Our project helps Pakistans economy grow by making it easier for fishermen, livestock farmers and other people who work in this field to get the money they need. We want to help these people by giving them ways to get financing. This will help Pakistan sell things to other countries create more jobs and make sure people have more money to live on. Our project is also connected to the idea of making sure people have jobs and that the economy grows in a way that is good for everyone, which is what the people who made the Sustainable Development Goals, specifically number 8 are trying to do. The Sustainable Development Goals are important. Our project supports the eighth goal by helping Pakistans economy grow and creating good jobs, for people who work in export-oriented industries like fishing and farming.

NDA

No

Abstract

The focus of this Experiential Learning Project is the least capitalized, but most strategically valuable agricultural export industries in Pakistan, marine fishing and halal meat export and the main aim of this project is to develop commercially viable, bankable financing solutions to the Development Finance Group (DFG) of Habib Bank Limited. The project was done as a well-considered research, solution design and feasibility analysis plan in the Spring 2026 semester and the geographical location of the project was Sindh peri-urban and rural areas. The research design involved a primary fieldwork which was qualitative and a lot of secondary research. Structured interviews were used to gather primary data with fishermen, harbour purchasers (beoparis), and an export processor at Karachi Fish Harbour; with mandi livestock traders and a commercial farmer at the Northern Bypass Cattle Mandi; and with a Food Safety-certified halal meat exporter. Secondary research was conducted using government sources like TDAP, SBP, Marine fisheries department, Pakistan Halal Authority (Pakistan Halal Authority, 2024) and PIDE (Abedullah, 2024)and supported by industry news and trade publications. The key lessons learnt are that both sectors are structurally marginalized by formal banking: the whole marine fishing value chain between fishermen and exporters is run on informal post-dated cheques and black-water lending at 60 to 100 percent effective annual rates; and the halal meat export chain between farmers and beoparis to certified processors is 100 percent self-financed despite USD 512 million in annual exports. No product is available in any of the commercial banks in Pakistan that is aimed at perishable export working capital cycle, certification financing or harbour middleman finance. There are four financing products that are recommended to HBL DFG. Ittehad Trade Finance Facility offers revolving credit and letter of credit to licensed seafood exporters that is expected to grow to PKR 5.2 billion portfolio by Year 3. The beoparis is formalized under Samandar Harbour Trader Finance Programme in three phases of product development that is expected to make PKR 222 million profit after tax in Year 3. Byproduct Monetization Finance unlocks edible offal and hide revenue on current abattoir business, with Debt Service Coverage Ratios greater than 2.9x. The USD 20,000 to 50,000 certification fee per year is an obstacle to the viii Pakistani exporters venturing into new markets, which is financed by Halal Export Compliance Finance with a portfolio yield of 8.9 percent in Year 3. The paper concludes that with its current network of agricultural banking and Kissan Card digital platform, HBL DFG is the first mover in these segments - a status that is already delivering commercial returns and quantifiable development finance impact in line with Pakistan SDG commitments.

Document Type

Restricted Access

Document Name for Citation

Experiential Learning Project

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