Pakistan leads in Islamic microfinance

MANILA, Philippines - Pakistan has been acknowledged as a leader of Islamic microfinance with more than 20 institutions providing microfinance services.

 In an international summit on Islamic microfinance in Istanbul, AlHuda Centre of Islamic Banking and Economics chief executive officer Muhammad Zubair Mughal said that conventional microfinance has badly failed and its examples can be clearly seen in India and Latin America.

“People do not use financial and banking system due to interest as it is strictly prohibited in Islam, hence forced to live in poverty whereas through Islamic microfinance, by using the financial products based on Shari’ah principles, we can get the people out from poverty,” he said.

He said many countries in the world are adapting Islamic microfinance system for poverty alleviation through which not only poverty will be eradicated but also a sustained economy shall come into being in these countries.

He claims that 44 percent of conventional microfinance clients live in Muslim countries and that the United Nations has added half of the countries of Islamic Development Bank in the list of least developed countries, which shows that Islamic microfinance can be used to eradicate poverty from Muslim dominated nations.

He said that Islamic microfinance is essential to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), proposed by United Nations for alleviating poverty and social uplifting. He said that Islamic microfinance sector is facing difficulties due to apathy of donors and to fulfill this deficiency, sukuk (Islamic bonds) can be issued.

The center executive further said that more financial products can be introduced by enhancing research in the field of Islamic microfinance and there are many opportunities for development in this field.

AlHuda Centre of Islamic Banking and Economics has established a specific microfinance help desk so that trainings, research and technical consultation could be provided to microfinance institutions (MFIs) worldwide.