Microcredit is the extension of very small loans (microloans) to impoverished borrowers who typically lack collateral, steady employment, and a verifiable credit history. It is designed to support entrepreneurship and alleviate poverty. Many recipients are illiterate, and therefore unable to complete paperwork required to get conventional loans. As of 2009 an estimated 74 million people held microloans that totaled US$38 billion. Grameen Bank reports that repayment success rates are between 95 and 98 percent. The first economist who had invented the idea of micro loans was Jonathan Swift in the 1720’s. Microcredit is part of microfinance, which provides a wider range of financial services, especially savings accounts, to the poor. Modern microcredit is generally considered to have originated with the Grameen Bank founded in Bangladesh in 1983. Many traditional banks subsequently introduced microcredit despite initial misgivings. The United Nations declared 2005 the International Year of Microcredit. As of 2012, microcredit is widely used in developing countries and is presented as having "enormous potential as a tool for poverty alleviation." Microcredit is a tool that can possibly be helpful to reduce feminization of poverty in developing countries.
Microfinance consists of financial services targeting individuals and small businesses who lack access to conventional banking and related services. Microfinance includes microcredit, the provision of small loans to poor clients; savings and checking accounts; microinsurance; and payment systems, among other services. Microfinance services are designed to reach excluded customers, usually poorer population segments, possibly socially marginalized, or geographically more isolated, and to help them become self-sufficient. ID Ghana is an example of a microfinance institution.
Grameen Bank is a microfinance specialized community development bank founded in Bangladesh. It provides small loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is the central bank of Pakistan. Its Constitution, as originally laid down in the State Bank of Pakistan Order 1948, remained basically unchanged until 1 January 1974, when the bank was nationalised and the scope of its functions was considerably enlarged. The State Bank of Pakistan Act 1956, with subsequent amendments, forms the basis of its operations today. The headquarters are located in the financial capital of the country in Karachi. The bank has a fully owned subsidiary with the name SBP Banking Services Corporation (SBP-BSC), the operational arm of the Central Bank with Branch Office in 16 cities across Pakistan, including the capital Islamabad and the four provincial capitals Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta. The State Bank of Pakistan has other fully owned subsidiaries as well: National Institute of Banking and Finance, the training arm of the bank providing training to Commercial Banks, the Deposit Protection Corporation, and ownership of the Pakistan Security Printing Corporation.
BRAC is an international development organisation based in Bangladesh. In order to receive foreign donations, BRAC was subsequently registered under the NGO Affairs Bureau of the Government of Bangladesh. BRAC is the largest non-governmental development Organisation in the world, in terms of the number of employees as of September 2016. Established by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed in 1972 after the independence of Bangladesh, BRAC is present in all 64 districts of Bangladesh as well as 16 other countries in Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) is a private, not-for-profit international development agency, which was founded in 1967 by Shah Karim Al Hussaini, Aga Khan IV, the 49th Hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims. AKF seeks to provide long-term solutions to problems of poverty, hunger, illiteracy and ill health in the poorest parts of South and Central Asia, Eastern and Western Africa, and the Middle East. In these regions, the needs of rural communities in mountainous, coastal and resource poor areas are given particular attention. The Foundation's activities often reinforce the work of other sister agencies within the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN). While these agencies are guided by different mandates pertaining to their respective fields of expertise, their activities are often coordinated with one another in order to "multiply" the overall effect that the Network has in any given place or community. AKF also collaborates with local, national and international partners in order to bring about sustainable improvements of life in the 14 countries in which it implements programmes. The Foundation's head office is located in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Orangi Pilot Project collectively designates three Pakistani non-governmental organisations working together, having emerged from a socially innovative project carried out in 1980s in the squatter areas of Orangi, Karachi, Pakistan. It was initiated by Akhtar Hameed Khan and implemented by Perween Rahman. Innovative methods were used to provide adequate low cost sanitation, health, housing and microfinance facilities.
Habib Bank Limited commonly known as HBL, is a Pakistani commercial bank based at Habib Bank Plaza, Karachi, Pakistan.
Telenor Pakistan (Pvt.) Limited is a Pakistani wireless network operator headquartered in Islamabad, Pakistan. Khurrum Ashfaque is the current chief executive officer (CEO).
Cooperative banking is retail and commercial banking organized on a cooperative basis. Cooperative banking institutions take deposits and lend money in most parts of the world.
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is an All India Financial Institution (AIFI) and an apex Supervisory Body for overall supervision of Regional Rural Banks, State Cooperative Banks and District Central Cooperative Banks in India. It was established under the NABARD Act 1981 passed by the Parliament of India. It is fully owned by Government of India and functions under the Department of Financial Services (DFS) under the Ministry of Finance.
The Comilla Model was a rural development programme launched in 1959 by the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development. The academy, which is located on the outskirts of Comilla town, was founded by Akhter Hameed Khan, the cooperative pioneer who was responsible for developing and launching the programme.
Financial inclusion is the availability and equality of opportunities to access financial services. It refers to processes by which individuals and businesses can access appropriate, affordable, and timely financial products and services - which include banking, loan, equity, and insurance products. It provides paths to enhance inclusiveness in economic growth by enabling the unbanked population to access the means for savings, investment, and insurance towards improving household income and reducing income inequality
Syed Salim Raza is a British Pakistani banker and financier who served as the 15th Governor of State Bank of Pakistan. In September 2018, Raza was appointed to the Economic Advisory Council (Pakistan), the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council.
The NRSP Microfinance Bank Ltd is the subsidiary of National Rural Support Programme which is an integrated rural development organization registered under company's ordinance 1984 with corporate law authority Islamabad. The NRSP Microfinance Bank headquarters is in South Punjab city of Bahawalpur.
The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) is a private, non profit organization, established by the Aga Khan Foundation in 1982 to help improve the quality of life of the villagers of Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral. It is a Non Governmental Organization which is part of the Rural Support Programmes Network in Pakistan.
Shoaib Sultan Khan NI is one of the pioneers of rural development programmes in Pakistan. As a CSP Officer, he worked with the Government of Pakistan for 25 years, later on he served Geneva based Aga Khan Foundation for 12 years, then UNICEF and UNDP for 14 years. Since his retirement, he has been involved with the Rural Support Programmes (RSPs) of Pakistan full-time, on voluntary basis. Today, the Rural Support Programmes have helped form 297,000 community organisations in 110 districts including two Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan.
Masood ul-Mulk TI is a Pakistani expert on humanitarian aid and a development practitioner. He is the CEO of SRSP the largest NGO working to alleviate poverty in North-West Pakistan.
Prime Minister's Youth Programme is an initiative by the former prime minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif established in 2013. The purpose of the programme is to ensure the provision of quality education, and meaningful employment to the youth through integrated, sustainable youth initiatives. The programme provided government-subsidised business loans of up to 25 million rupees, under three tiers: first-tier for 10000 to 1 million, the second tier for 1 million to 10 million, and the third tier for 10 million to 25 million. The programme also provided a skills scholarship program, a talent hunt for youth sports, and a national youth council.
Sultan Ali Allana is a Pakistani banker who is chairman of Habib Bank Limited and a director of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development. He is a recipient of Hilal-i-Imtiaz in 2006 and Sitara-i-Imtiaz in 2022 for his services to Pakistan.
Rs. 35.491 billion (US$120 million) (2023)
Rs. 451.249 million (US$1.6 million) (2023)
