The state government has decided to extend the Chief Minister’s Entrepreneurship Development Programme (CMEDP) by another year. This means the Kerala Financial Corporation (KFC)-run initiative will now be active until April 2026.
The scheme, which was first introduced to help small and medium businesses get easy loans, is also getting a boost in its loan limit—from ₹2 crore to ₹5 crore. The idea, as officials suggest, is to make credit more accessible for aspiring entrepreneurs who otherwise struggle to get loans at reasonable interest rates.
Here’s how it works. Entrepreneurs who avail loans under CMEDP now need to pay only 6% interest. The remaining 5% gets taken care of through subsidies—3% by the state government and 2% by KFC.
There’s also a shift in who can apply. The age limit for applicants has been increased from 50 to 60, possibly to accommodate more experienced individuals who may have missed out earlier.
So far, around 3,101 enterprises have benefited from this scheme. In total, ₹1,046 crore has been disbursed as loans. According to official estimates, these ventures have created over 80,000 jobs—directly or indirectly.
For this financial year, the government is aiming to support 500 more ventures through the scheme.
There’s a separate version of this scheme for former military personnel, known as the CMEDP – ex-servicemen scheme. Under this, ex-servicemen can access loans to start industrial ventures. The repayment term is five years, with a one-year moratorium. They can get up to 90% of the project cost as a loan.
Officials believe the extension and revised loan structure could encourage more participation, especially from those previously left out. But whether the updated scheme meets its target or not remains to be seen.