Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Fighting Poverty Through Microfinance in Pakistan

During 2002 to 2007, Pakistan's economy grew at an average rate of 7% annually, creating about 2.5m jobs a year, barely keeping up with the number of young people ready to join the work force each year, according to Salman Shah, senior economic adviser to former President Musharraf of Pakistan. However, the current economic slowdown has resulted in significant job losses in almost all private sectors of the economy, increasing visible signs of poverty. According to a BBC report last year, three times a day, hundreds of men, women and children line up outside dozens of Karachi restaurants for meals which are paid for by philanthropists and charity donors. These lines were considerably shorter, or non-existent until early 2008. Many of those lining up are industrial workers who have lost their jobs. Credit crunch has taken its toll on all businesses and consumers, even the microfinance sector helping small entrepreneurs has not been spared. There were about 1.8 million beneficiaries of the microfinance institutions during the financial year 2008. They lent more than Rs. 21 billion to the poor people. The number of active borrowers of microloans has dropped by 7%, while the gross loan portfolio (GLP) has fared even worse, declining by 12%, according to the most recent Microwatch newsletter for the last quarter of 2008. Credit has not been extended to a significant number of previous borrowers as the lenders have not been able to roll-over existing lines of credit.

In response to these declines in small loans, the State Bank of Pakistan has acted to help recapitalize the microlenders in Pakistan. According to a recent report by Microcapital, Pakistan's central bank has launched three microfinance initiatives: the Microfinance Credit Guarantee Facility, the Institutional Strengthening Fund, and Improving Access to Finance Services Fund. The initiatives are part of $75 million Financial Inclusion Program (FIP), a joint venture between SPB and the UK Department for International Development. The objective of the three microfinance initiatives is to provide liquidity to the microfinance providers in response to tighter liquidity conditions and a sudden spike in inflation. In 2008, Pakistan’s inflation rate reached 20.8 percent, primarily due to rising world fuel and commodity prices. The announced initiatives are also in line with the aggressive goals outlined in the Pakistani government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. In the paper, the government has laid out an evidence based policy and set a target of reaching out to three million microfinance borrowers by the end of 2010 and 10 million borrowers by 2015.

The history of microfinance activities in Pakistan started with the launch of Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) in Kutchi Abadies (shanty towns) of Karachi in early 1980’s, according to a paper published by Abdul Qayyum and Munir Ahmed. In the late 1960s, prior to OPP, a few NGOs in the rural areas of Pakistan began to experiment with microcredit by offering subsidized loans. However, they mostly failed to reach the poor due to abuse and corruption. Now there are more than sixteen Micro Finance Institutions working in Pakistan. The MFIs in Pakistan can be divided into different groups based on their uniqueness that separates them from other financial institutions and makes them similar in terms of the way they function.

The first group consists of financial institutions with microfinance as a separate product line. The share of microfinance related activities of these institutions is up to 10 percent. This group includes Orix Leasing and the Bank of Khyber –both are profit making organizations and consider microfinance as a separate product line.

The second group refers to the specialized MFI’s, which includes two microfinance banks - The Khushhali Bank and First Microfinance Bank Limited (FMBL) - and two NGOs - KASHF Foundation and ASASAH. All these institutions completely focus on provision of financial services and also have commercial focus as well.

Third category MFIs related to activities of the Rural Support Programs which deals with integrated Rural Development Programs with microfinance as one of its activities. These organizations are National Rural Support Programs (NRSP), Punjab Rural Support Programs (PRSP) and Sarhad Rural Support Programs (SRSP). The last group consists of private NGOs. These NGOs are basically integrated development organizations with microfinance as one of their activities. These include Orangi Pilot Project, Sungi Foundation, Taraqee Foundation, Development Action for Mobilization and Emancipation (TRDP), Sindh Agricultural & Forestry Workers Coordinating Organization (SAFWCO) and Development Action for Mobilization and Emancipation (DAMEN), among others.

Khushhali Bank was established in August 2000 as part of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan's Poverty Reduction Strategy. The Pakistan Microfinance Sector Development Program (MSDP) was developed with the technical assistance and funding of the Asian Development Bank, which provided a US$150 million loan to the government of Pakistan, US$70 million being used for micro-loans provided by KB. Headquartered in Islamabad, KB operates under the central bank's supervision (State Bank of Pakistan) with several commercial banks operating as its primary shareholders.

The First Microfinance Bank, established by Agha Khan Foundation in 2002 as the first private sector micro-finance bank in Pakistan, is a premier non-commercial bank licensed by the State Bank of Pakistan under the regulatory framework of the Microfinance Institutions Ordinance 2001, issued by President Musharraf. It was created through a structured transformation of the credit and savings section of the Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP), an institution that had laid the foundations of the microfinance sector in the country in 1982, beginning in the Northern Areas and Chitral.

To highlight the positive impact of microfinancing on the lives of poor people in Pakistan, Microfinance Connect website has a number of success stories. For example, a Kashf Foundation customer Shehnaz tells the story of how she was able to keep the the business running while dealing with her husband's illness because of health insurance provided through the foundation's microinsurance program. Rashida Bibi, an Asasah customer, succeeded in doubling her dairy business revenue because of the microloan she received. Shopkeeper Mohammad Aijaz tells a similar story of increased business during the holiday season made possible by a Rs. 35000 loan from Tameer.

In addition to microlending for the traditional small businesses, there is a need in Pakistan to expand this effort by emulating the work of Grameen Shakti to empower villagers with electricity, water, sanitation and other necessities. It is one of more than two dozen organizations within the Grameen family of enterprises that is dedicated to improving the quality of rural life in Bangladesh. The lack of electricity results in low levels of human development, low productivity and widespread poverty in the developing world, including Pakistan. The governments of most developing nations, particularly in South Asia, have miserably failed in providing such a basic necessity as electricity to their people. About 40% of the people in both India and Pakistan have no access to electricity, the percentage lacking access in Bangladesh is even higher.

In Pakistan, the total banking sector serves around 6 million borrowers and 25 million depositors, implying a penetration rate of 3.6 percent and 15 percent respectively. In terms of access to microfinance, which means the availability of small loans, micro deposits and micro-insurance services to low income households, the current penetration rate is only 10 percent. In other words, 85 percent of Pakistan's population does not have access to any financial services at all, which inherently creates an uneven and an inequitable economic world, where the majority of people are financially marginalized. This situation drives the poor to rely on informal sources of funding like the unscrupulous moneylender, where the calculus of the relationship works to the detriment of the borrower. A well regulated and highly effective microfinance sector is, therefore, absolutely necessary to give hope to the poor in breaking the vicious cycle of dependence and poverty.

Microfinancing, along with social entrepreneurship, should be an essential component of non-government efforts in Pakistan and other developing nations to empower ordinary people to become self-reliant by lifting them out of poverty and teaching them the right skills to help themselves. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” This proverb has guided the efforts of late Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan, acclaimed Pakistani social scientist and founder of Orangi Pilot Project. All efforts at alleviating poverty should be guided by this proverb that captures the essence of self-reliance.

Here is a Kashf Foundation video clip explaining how microfinance works in Pakistan:



Here is a Skoll Foundation video on social entrepreneurship:



Related Links:

Microfinance Connect

Microfinance in Pakistan: A Silver Bullet for Development?

Microfinance Industry Overview

Pakistan Financial Sector Risks

Akhtar Hamid Khan's Vision

Grameen Foundation in Pakistan

Pakistan's Poverty Reduction Strategy

Grameen Shakti Solar Model For Pakistan

Job Losses Hit India and Pakistan

MicroCapital in Pakistan

29 comments:

administrator web site said...

"Dr. Akhter Hameed Khan - The Pioneer of Microcredit" by Nasim Yousaf
http://akhtar-hameed-khan.8m.com

Anonymous said...

"Remembering Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan" (October 9, 2009)
http://akhtar-hameed-khan.8m.com

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a ranking of ease of doing business in South Asia that puts Pakistan well ahead of India:

Bangalore: The business environment in Pakistan and Bangladesh is far better than in India. According to the latest 'Doing Business Index', India's business environment has become tougher during the years compared to other nations.

Economies are ranked from one to 183 on the basis of their regulatory environment being conducive to business operations. All of India's neighbors except Afghanistan have been ranked better. While India is ranked 133, Pakistan is ranked 85th followed by Sri Lanka (105), Bangladesh (119) and Nepal (123).

"India is a consistent reformer for the past many years. A country's rank in the index is an average of 10 indicators, each with 10 percent weight in the index. India increased the number of judges in the specialized debt recovery tribunals, which led to a major removal of blockages. While India reformed in the area of insolvency, other countries reformed in more than one area," World Bank's Senior Strategy Advisor, Dahlia Khalifa told Economic Times explaining why India has been overtaken by other nations.

The 2010 Doing Business Report prepared by World Bank and the International Finance Corporation averages a country's percentile ranking on 10 topics, made up of a variety of indicators. This includes examining a country's business environment in terms of starting a business, dealing with construction permit, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and closing a business.

The first place is occupied by Singapore, which is followed by New Zealand, Hong Kong and the U.S.

To see complete rankings and report, click here: http://www.doingbusiness.org/EconomyRankings/"

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a news brief from the BBC about honors for the founder of BRAC, which also operates in Pakistan:

The founder of one of the world's largest non governmental organisations, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, has been honoured in the UK.

Fazle Hasan Abed - who holds dual British and Bangladesh citizenship - will be knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2010 for services in tackling poverty.

He has also been awarded for empowering the poor in Bangladesh and globally.

Mr Abed's name was included in the Queen's New Year's Honours List released on Thursday.

'Multi-dimensional approach'

"I feel very humbled to receive this award," he told the BBC from his office in Dhaka, "which I am delighted to accept on behalf of all Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (Brac) workers across the world.

"I now want to build on this success to continue Brac's fight against poverty not only in Bangladesh but in eight other countries in the world where we are involved - Afghanistan, Uganda, Tanzania, Southern Sudan, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Sri Lanka."

Brac also has plans to expand into Haiti.

Mr Abed says that Brac's success was because of a "multi-dimensional approach" to fighting poverty such as improving education, healthcare and financial services.

Riaz Haq said...

Here are excerpts from an interesting article on Chowk about financial systems:

A financial system is a structure that channels funds from agents with surplus to those with a deficit. Financial systems are crucial for the allocation of resources in a modern economy. A powerful question to ask then in the context of developing countries is what the relationship between growth and
the financial system is. Does growth lead to the development of the financial sector or do financial systems create growth? What can be concluded is that there is a positive correlation between growth and financial structures. The more important debate lies in the relative contribution of banks and financial markets in stimulating growth.

The modern financial system debate can be broken down into two opposing views. The first is that of Gerschenkron, who holds the view that bank based finance plays the key role in development. It is open to state intervention. This view was largely held throughout the 1960-1970’s. Stiglitz was another supporter of this bank based system. However during the 1990’s a new point of view emerged that wanted to remove the distinction between bank based and market based systems and proposed the need for a “modern financial system” for development. This argument was in favor of a market based system which took precedence in the 1990’s. It became associated with modern finance. Thus modern finance closely resembled market finance. This as we will see later can have quite a detrimental affect on the process of development for developing countries as is supported in the Singh 1997 paper which states that, “general financial liberalization and the associated expansion of stock markets in DCs is likely to hinder rather than assist their development.

The emergence of the stock markets has been a major new development in the financial systems of developing countries but its impact has been less than ideal. In an attempt to assist with the liberalization process developing countries have seen a remarkable growth in their stock markets. Stock markets allow financial services in addition to banks. Not only is risk reduced in areas of long term risk but they are also supported by the transparency argument. This has very important implications on developing countries, where corruption, crony capitalism and lack of accountability institutions lead to inefficient financial systems. Stock markets provide information on what a company is and how it is performing. This creates transparency of information for investment decisions.

So far the poor have been excluded from lending within this modern financial system. This is a very important area of discussion when designing the financial system for developing countries. The majority of the population in these countries is poor. They remain excluded despite the deregulation of finance because transaction costs are very high in lending to the poor. These transaction costs include on part of the lender screening costs, disbursement costs, monitoring and ensuring payment. For the borrower these costs involve the cost of lodging applications, obtaining and securing loans. These transaction costs are pronounced with the absence of institutions such as tax collection systems, legal systems, rating agencies, insurance systems and education. The poor form the majority of the population in most developing countries. Thus this may be an oversight on part of the financial system proposed for these countries. One solution put forth is that of micro finance. The precursor to this system was the ADB. These suffer from the problem of sustainability and the result of such efforts has been disappointing based on the results in the last few decades. The answer then is still greater formal involvement and not MFI’s.

Riaz Haq said...

Moderated by Saad Khan, a partner at CMEA Capital, there was a social entrepreneurs panel at Open Forum 2010 that featured Salman Khan of Khan Academy, Leila Janah of Samasource, Tabreez Verjee of Kiva, and Misbah Naqvi of Acumen Fund.

The panelists described what they do as social entrepreneurs and what led them to it. Salman Khan started at a hedge fund before he was inspired by a cousin and her friends to create Khan Academy for tutoring math and science via his Youtube channel.

Leila Janah of Samasource went to work for the World Bank in Washington to fight poverty, but she was soon soured by the bank bureaucracy whose focus was on self-interest rather than the interest of the world's poor which it is supposed to serve. Her first day at the World Bank was spent at a seminar advising bank employees on financing a second home. She quit her job to found Samasource, which is a non-profit service that seeks contracts from companies in the West, and slices large contracts into microwork tasks like data entry, software testing, transcription and research outsourced to the poor, but educated, workers abroad.

Tabreez Verjee serves on the board of Kiva, a Silicon valley startup that combines microfinance with the Internet to create a global community of people connected through lending. The company allows lenders to lend amounts as small as $25 and choose who to lend to via the Internet. The funds are disbursed to small entrepreneurs and loans repaid using existing microfiance companies operating in different parts of the world. Kiva is working with Asasah microfinance in Pakistan.

Misabah Naqvi is the business development manager of Acumen fund which invests in social enterprises. She was originally a banker in Pakistan before joining the Acumen Fund. The fund is a business rather than a charity, and puts all of its returns back into the fund to support more social efforts based on sustainability, scale and social impact. In addition to investing in microfinance, the Acumen fund has invested in Saiban which is building low-cost housing in Pakistan.

Riaz Haq said...

A recent ODI report highlighting India's progress toward MDGs and putting India in the top 20.

Looking at the detailed report, however, it clearly highlights Pakistan along with China in the top 10 in achieving poverty reduction goal MDG1, the most important of MDGs. There is no mention of India on this list in table 4.

http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/download/4908.pdf

Riaz Haq said...

Here's an Express Tribune report on philanthropy doubling in Pakistan in the last decade:

KARACHI: Inflation is not the only thing that is on the rise. The amount contributed towards philanthropy in Pakistan has almost doubled over the past decade, said Anjum R Haque, Executive Director, Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy (PCP), an Islamabad-based organisation focussed on streamlining social development.

While a total of Rs70 billion had been donated in 2000, she said that the figure was likely to reach Rs140 billion this year. With donations carrying such a massive potential, she said, there is a growing need to make direct cash flows strategically.

She also spoke about the PCP certification programme under which 162 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been certified.

The PCP’s aim, she said, is to create awareness and sensitise society about current issues affecting growth in the social sector and create an enabling environment for the certified NGOs.

“Regularisation of NGOs is a very sensitive issue and the PCP tries to promote this culture through a voluntary approach,” she said.

Certification Manager Malik Babur Javed said that the certification programme was recognised by the government and was the country’s only system that reinforced and promoted internal governance, financial transparency and programme delivery in the non-profit sector.

He said that civil society organisations (CSO) certification not only created sector-wide standards but also promoted the government’s agenda of strengthening the civil society in terms of administration, documentation, disclosure, transparency, accountability and effective service delivery.

With additional information from APP

Riaz Haq said...

Here is a NY Times report on Khosla's SKS microfinance going public in Mumbai:

MUMBAI, India — Vinod Khosla, the billionaire venture capitalist and co-founder of Sun Microsystems, was already among the world’s richest men when he invested a few years ago in SKS Microfinance, a lender to poor women in India.

But the roaring success of SKS’s recent initial public stock offering in Mumbai has made him richer by about $117 million — money he says he plans to plow back into other ventures that aim to fight poverty while also trying to turn a profit.

And he says he wants to challenge other rich Indians to do more to help their country’s poor.

An Indian transplant to Silicon Valley, Mr. Khosla plans to start a venture capital fund to invest in companies that focus on the poor in India, Africa and elsewhere by providing services like health, energy and education.

By backing businesses that provide education loans or distribute solar panels in villages, he says, he wants to show that commercial entities can better help people in poverty than most nonprofit charitable organizations.

“There needs to be more experiments in building sustainable businesses going after the market for the poor,” he said in a telephone interview from his office in Menlo Park, Calif. “It has to be done in a sustainable way. There is not enough money to be given away in the world to make the poor well off.”

Mr. Khosla’s advocacy of the bootstrap powers of capitalism is part of an increasingly popular school of thought: businesses, not governments or nonprofit groups, should lead the effort to eradicate global poverty.

Some nonprofit experts say commercial social enterprises have significant limitations and pose conflicts of interest. But proponents like Mr. Khosla draw inspiration from the astounding global growth of microfinance — the business of giving small loans to poor entrepreneurs, of which SKS Microfinance is a notable practitioner.

Advocates also find intellectual support for the idea from the work of business management professors like the late C. K. Prahalad, who have argued that large corporations can do well and do good by aiming at people at the so-called bottom of the pyramid.

Besides Mr. Khosla, entrepreneurs like Pierre Omidyar, a co-founder of eBay, and Stephen M. Case, a co-founder of America Online, have started funds with similar aims.

But Mr. Khosla, 55, who moved to the United States from India as a graduate student in 1976, has another motive, too. He wants to goad other rich Indians into giving away more of their wealth.

India’s torrid growth over the last decade has helped enrich many here — Forbes estimates that India now has 69 billionaires, up from seven in 2000 — but only a few have set up large charities, endowments or venture capital funds.

“It surprises me that in India there is not a tradition of large-scale giving and helping to solve social problems and set a social model,” Mr. Khosla said.

Mr. Khosla is not alone in worrying about the state of Indian philanthropy. Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, who was in China last week with the billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett, said Thursday that he and Mr. Buffett might go to India as part of their campaign to get the very rich to give away half their wealth.

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a BBC report on Indians banks committing to work with microfinance industry in the wake of borrowers' suicides:

India's banking industry has thrown its support behind microfinance lenders after weeks of upheaval and confusion.

Major banks like the State Bank of India, Standard Chartered and Citi have all agreed to continue lending to microfinance firms.

The multi-billion dollar industry was on the brink of a mass default.

The banks' support has hung in the balance since lenders became embroiled in controversy in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

About four weeks ago, authorities started blaming microfinance firms for a string of suicides in rural villages.

They claim the suicides have been caused by company malpractice, heavy handed debt recovery methods and high interest rates.

Lenders deny the accusations.

Microfinance is designed to offer small, cheap loans to poorer borrowers, often in rural areas, who have difficulty accessing funds from banks.

Riaz Haq said...

Rumors of the death of microfinance in India have been greatly exaggerated, says Lindsay Clinton is the editor of Beyond Profit.

Here's what's really happening.

Until recently, microfinance was the darling of poverty alleviation. A foolproof way to pull people out of $2-a-day poverty. But, now, the microfinance sector in India is in crisis, so much so, The New York Times announced last week that “Indian Microcredit Faces Collapse from Defaults.” Is this another sub-prime fiasco? What happened to take us from “putting poverty in a museum” to putting the kibosh on the whole model?

Well, we got a little ahead of ourselves for several reasons. But, before we go there, here’s a brief recap on what’s happening in Indian microfinance: Last month, the government of the state of Andhra Pradesh, India’s most saturated microfinance market, ordered microfinance institutions to stop lending, and told borrowers to stop repaying. A spate of suicides by men and women who were microfinance borrowers alarmed many, and the government felt that microlenders were to blame. Were they?

In AP, two dueling parties provide a financial service to the poor. It gets a little complicated, but in essence, there are two ways to get a microloan, from the government or from a microfinance institution. Through banks, the government lends to groups of 11 to 20 women in so-called self-help groups or SHGs. The government has a mandate to disperse $22 billion to SHGs by 2014. The other option is a commercial, for-profit microfinance lender. They are shooting to use profits to scale up and reach even more borrowers. To get commercial microfinance money you become a member of a "joint-liability group" for a loan supported by group collateral. Some choose the SHG, others the standard microfinance institutions, and some take advantage of both, receiving multiple loans from multiple sources.

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Microcredit is only impactful if we create a deep connection to a borrower by offering a suite of services: microinsurance, financial literacy, business development training, etc. Some MFIs are already offering these services, and doing it well (see BASIX, for one great example), accepting that they may not grow as fast. The sooner MFIs evolve beyond the growth mantra and commit to making a real impact, the sooner we’ll be on the right track.

Riaz Haq said...

Here are a few excerpts from a recent NPR discusion of microfinane:

In 2006, Muhammad Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work lending very small amounts of money to very poor people. Since then, microfinance institutions have popped up all over the world. Some organizations are using investors to make significant profits from this work, drawing criticism from traditional non-profit organizations. Host Neal Conan talks with Vikram Akula, the founder of SKS Microfinance, a for-profit microfinance organization in India, and Grameen Foundation president and CEO Alex Counts, about the pros and cons of fighting poverty for a profit.
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CONAN: I just wanted to bring Alex in on that point. From what you understand about the regulatory system in India, is are the rates being charged by SKS out of line, do you think?

Mr. COUNTS: Actually, no. In fact, SKS, we have some disagreements with their approach, but I would say that by global standards they are quite an efficient organization, pass many of those efficiencies on to the poor, and the trend is in the right direction. I think people are can afford those, running certain types of businesses.

But I do think there's a larger point, which is that, you know, there's in microfinance and outside of it, there's a lot of wishful thinking about people being able to make a lot of money and do a lot of good for the poor, and yet in reality there are not the accountabilities in terms of doing right by the poor, that there are in terms of making money.

And this is why we've, through Grameen Foundation, have been trying to take a model developed by the Grameen Bank, which we call the Progress out of Poverty Index, a kind of self-accountability tool for how the poor moving out of poverty. It is now the most widely used tool in the industry. We've long hoped that SKS would adopt it or any other tool that does the same purpose, and they've not elected to do that.
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And in case of Vikram, according to analysis that I've seen, his own personal stock options, there something in the range of $60 million. And I don't begrudge him that - those resources at all, but it does provoke a kind of a backlash. And that backlash is right now threatening the microfinance sector throughout India. And it's something a lot of us are worried about. And we think it didn't need to happen if people had been a little more thoughtful about how they rolled out this model.
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CONAN: The concern, and I don't again, would not put words in Alex Counts's mouth. But the concern is that sometimes profits become the goal, as opposed to the goal of eradication of poverty.

Mr. AKULA: Well, I think there's a distinction that one has to make between sort of what happens in theory and what's actually happening in fact.

You know, Neal, you had started with the question of, you know, wouldn't competition bring down prices over time. And in fact, that's exactly what we're seeing in India.

If you look at SKS, we were, at one point, as high as 40 percent interest when we started out, because we needed to charge that much to break even. We've lowered it to 31, 27 and now 24.5 percent. And what's interesting is at the same time, our return on equity went up from five to 12 to 18 to 21 percent, where it stands now.

So the actual history, the actual facts that suggest that competition does lower price over time, you know, as you get more and more, you know, players in, and simultaneously because of our volumes and our efficiency, you can actually provide even greater, you know, shareholder return.

I think the real question to ask is: Look, if the market works forthe middle class, it works for the wealthy, if competition gives choice and, you know, better pricing, why should the poor have anything less?

Riaz Haq said...

Here are some excerpts from a BBC report on allegations against Mohammad Yunus:

A documentary maker has alleged that cash was diverted from Professor Yunus' Grameen Bank to other parts of Grameen.

In a statement, the bank said that the allegations were false.

It said that a full explanation with more details would be provided at the "earliest convenient time".

The bank was set up by Professor Yunus to provide micro-credit - or small loans - to the poor.

The move by the Norwegians - who insist that no criminal activity has taken place - comes at a time when the reputation of the micro-credit industry has been under attack.

The original aim of the micro-credit concept was poverty reduction, but in recent years some micro-financial institutions have been criticised over exorbitant interest rates and alleged coercive debt collection.

In the south-eastern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, for example, micro-loans have been blamed for a series of suicides among struggling farmers.

It is estimated some 250 organisations in the state have handed out loans totalling more than £1.65bn (£883m), only a small proportion of which have been paid back.

The Grameen Bank's denial followed the release of a documentary by Danish filmmaker, Tom Heinemann, who claimed Professor Yunus and his associates diverted nearly $100m of grant money to another company - Grameen Kalyan - which was not involved in micro-credit operations.

Mr Heinemann said he stumbled upon the documents and letters relating to the alleged transfer while doing research for his documentary on micro-credit.

"I got most of the documents from the archives of Norad, the Norwegian aid agency in Oslo," he said.

The Grameen group of more than 30 companies headed by Professor Yunus is divided between those not operating for profit and those which do.

Mr Heinemann's report alleged that after the Norwegian authorities raised objections to the alleged transfer of funds, the Grameen bank returned about $30m. The aid money was from Norway, Sweden and Germany.

Professor Yunus, known as the Banker to the Poor, and the Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below".

The economist founded the bank, which is one of numerous organisations now providing loans to the poor - especially women - in Bangladesh.

The micro-credit lending model has been replicated in other parts of the world.

Reacting to the latest report, the Norwegian authorities say they have no suspicions of tax fraud or corruption committed by Grameen Bank.

"Having said that, the Government of Norway finds it totally unacceptable that aid is used for other purposes than intended no matter how praiseworthy the causes might be," Norwegian International Development Minister Erik Solheim said in a statement e-mailed to the BBC.

Mr Solheim said that he had asked the Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation for a full report on the matter.

"At the same time it is important to stress that we are firm believers in micro-finance as a tool in the fight against poverty," he said.

The documentary "Caught in Micro Debt" was shown on Norwegian National Television earlier this week.

"I travelled to Bangladesh, India and Mexico to find out whether micro-credit loans have really helped the poor. But I found out that poor people are getting into more and more debt because of micro-credit loans," Mr Heinemann told the BBC.

He said that he was not accusing Professor Yunus of misusing the money or personally benefiting from the transfer.

Riaz Haq said...

Here's Newsweek on India's Microfinance Blues:

Small borrowing has big problems. Last month’s $221 million rescue loan to a group of troubled Indian microfinance companies—with some $2 billion on the line, nearly eight of 10 borrowers were in default—has stirred a crisis of faith in development circles. Critics complain that private banks, lured by the sizzling market in making small loans to the poor, betrayed the neediest by creating a mutant, developing-world subprime monster with 20 to 30 percent interest rates. Now there are fears it could spread.

Microcredit has ballooned into a $38 billion industry, but there’s less and less consensus over its efficacy. Abhijit Banerjee of MIT discovered that only about 5 percent of the 7,200 households that took money from Indian firm Spandana Sphoorty Innovative Financial Services managed to launch a business. Studies have reached similar conclusions in Morocco, the Philippines, and Bangladesh. “Most poor people do not have the basic education or experience to understand and manage even low-level business activities,” writes U.N. economist Anis Chowdhury. “They are mostly risk-averse, often fearful of losing whatever little they have.”

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a piece from Newsweek about improving access to fnancial services by the poor in developing nations through in-store banks:

Today, hundreds of millions among the world’s poor have access to microloans—small sums of money borrowed from financial firms, sometimes at sky-high interest rates. What they haven’t been able to acquire is something far more basic: a savings account. Few banks in developing countries have found ways to profit in poor, rural areas, leaving people with a dearth of safe options for accumulating cash. According to one recent survey, nearly 90 percent of adults in emerging markets store money at home, with friends, or with a local co-op.

Now a solution has emerged: across the developing world, a small but growing number of banks have set up shop in convenience and retail stores that already cater to the rural poor. Latin America in particular has embraced this new kind of piggy bank, which McKinsey & Co. says costs 25 percent less to run than a traditional bank branch. In Mexico, more than 5,000 in-store banks have sprung up over the past year; and in Brazil, about 1,600 municipalities have no banks other than these hybrids. Meanwhile, the Mexican government, working with development bank Bansefi, is mulling a plan to link savings accounts to smart cards. The cards, which are distributed to some welfare recipients, can be used at Diconsa, a network of stores that cater to the rural poor. The plan could bring an easier way to save to millions. In the U.S., most have easy access to savings accounts, but McKinsey says these hybrid banks could still help some among the rural poor.

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a Christian Science Monitor report about inexpensive health insurance for the poor in Pakistan:

Karachi, Pakistan

Wilayat Shah, a security guard at the luxury Avari Towers Hotel in Karachi, Pakistan, was rushed to a hospital last December after experiencing headaches and losing consciousness at work.

Unlike the wealthy patrons of the hotel he guarded, the father of four wouldn't ordinarily have had access to top-notch medical treatment.

But thanks to a health-care program run by the nonprofit Naya Jeevan (New Life), Mr. Shah, who earns just $150 a month, paid nothing for the MRI scans and treatment he received, worth some $1,400. He now has returned to work.

Shah is one of some 13,000 low-income workers in Pakistan signed on to the Naya Jeevan program. It was founded in 2007 by surgeon-turned-social entrepreneur Asher Hasan and began operating in Pakistan last summer.

"In Pakistan, privileged people can afford their care," Dr. Hasan explains. "The poor, who work alongside the rich, were just excluded from the system."

Hasan left a successful career in the United States to return to Pakistan, where he had spent his formative years, on a mission to provide affordable health care to low-income workers.

He lived a "clichéd life," he says, with a résumé that includes an MBA from New York University, research work at Harvard Medical School, and a stint as a senior executive at a California-based pharmaceutical company.

"I knew there was much more I could be doing in Pakistan," Hasan says.

By working with insurance companies to spread risk across clusters of low-income workers, who typically earn less than $200 a month, Naya Jeevan opens up high-quality health care to a segment of the population that couldn't afford it before.

Each participant pays in about $1.80 per month. The maximum catastrophic payout is $1,800 per year – the average cost of heart bypass surgery at a good private hospital in Pakistan, Hasan says.

That low monthly premium, which he calculates as roughly 2.1 percent of the monthly income of the working poor, as well as the absence of deductibles and copayments, is "commendable," says Farasat Bokhari, a Pakistani-American health economist at King's College in London.

"More impressive is the fact that they have contracts with a large number of private hospitals, which are presumably of higher quality compared with the public hospitals, which are severely underfunded," Mr. Bokhari says.

Last year, the Pakistani government spent an average of $18 per person for health care, one of the consequences of its struggle to deal with an ongoing battle against Islamist insurgents on its western border and the aftermath of last year's catastrophic floods.
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Hasan has first-hand experience. Born in London into a middle-class family, his mother moved him and his three sisters to Karachi following the death of their father in 1983. On a trip back to Britain, Hasan's mother suffered a nervous breakdown. She had no contact with her children for the next three years.

During this time, Hasan grew close to the children of his maid. While his education was provided for by the colleagues and friends of his late father, his maid was unable to tap any wealthy connections when her father fell seriously ill, forcing her to withdraw her children from school.

"I realized that a single catastrophic event can lead to the perpetuation of the cycle of poverty," he says. "We had to create a system which could break that cycle."
---------
The next step after that, he says, will be to work with other major institutions to sign up 2.5 million Pakistanis and lobby the federal government to set up a similar program of private health-care insurance nationwide.

Riaz Haq said...

Here's an interesting 2004 ADB assessment of Pakistan's rural economy:

....
Despite recent good macroeconomic performance, Pakistan continues to have high levels of poverty. Poverty estimates of 2000-2001, indicate that around one third of the population lives at or below the poverty line, with poverty being concentrated in rural areas. Available international literature indicates a strong and clear-cut relationship between agricultural growth and poverty reduction. The agricultural sector is a major determinant of the overall economic growth and well being in Pakistan, contributing 23 percent of total GDP; employing 42% of the total employed labor force; and accounting for nearly 9 percent of the country's export earnings. Thus, high agricultural growth is essential for significant poverty reduction in Pakistan.

However, in addition to the direct impact of agriculture growth on poverty reduction, there is also a much larger indirect effect through the linkages between agriculture and non-farm growth in rural areas. Non-farm growth is closely linked with agricultural growth since peasant farmers spend a large portion of their incremental income on locally produced non-agricultural goods thus generating employment and incomes in the adjoining areas. The increased demand for non-farm goods leads to a much larger increase in employment, which is a key vehicle for poverty reduction. Available information also points to the increasing importance of non-farm incomes for rural households. The five major sources of income in rural Pakistan are wages/salaries, transfer income, crop income, rental income and livestock income. Livestock is a particularly important source of income for the poor with a majority of poor households, especially the landless and small landowners, dependent on this sector.

In the light of increasingly limited income generating opportunities in the on-farm sector, poor households are increasingly turning to the non-farm sector as a key source of livelihood. In addition, there appears to be a higher incidence of vulnerability to falling into and remaining in poverty, among households which are dependent solely on agriculture. Rural areas that are well connected with the urban areas seem to be more prosperous, in part because the lack of employment opportunities in rural areas results either in labor reallocation or migration. In both cases, human capital plays a positive and significant role and the poorest of the poor neither possess the human capital nor have the resources to migrate. This vulnerable group needs special attention.

Pakistan's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper outlines four pillars for accelerating growth and reducing poverty. Pillar One focuses on accelerating economic growth, pillar Two on improving governance and devolution, Pillar Three on investing in human capital, and Pillar Four on targeting the poor and vulnerable. Pillars One and Four focus on generating employment, especially in the rural areas, small and medium industries and micro-finance. There are also very strong linkages between income poverty and the other two PRSP Pillars. For example, access to justice, successful devolution, increasing the human capital of the poor, and ensuring effective safety nets are also central factors for increasing the incomes of poor people.
---
To increase incomes of poor households and build social capital, the ADB is funding a Micro-Finance Sector Development Program. As part of its objective to efficiently provide financial and social services to the poor, the ADB assisted with the establishment of the Khushali Bank, a public-private enterprise in partnership with NGOs, under this program. The ADB is also engaged in several rural development projects such as the Malakand, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Bahawalpur, and Dera Ghazi Khan Rural Development Projects, to enhance household incomes, particularly for the smallholder and tenant farmers, and the landless.....

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a report about Dawood Foundation encouraging entrepreneurship in Pakistan:

KARACHI - Six of the most dynamic women entrepreneurs talked about their experiences, triumphs and losses before a spell-bound audience at the second Ladiesfund Entrepreneurship Conference (LEC) hosted by the Dawood Global Foundation (DGF) at the Avari Towers.
The event was organised in partnership with the Higher Education Commission, the Avari Group, the Dawood Capital Management, and over 60 partners, sponsors and supporters. The audience was diverse and consisted of Very Important Persons, top entrepreneurs, budding entrepreneurs, journalists and enthusiastic university students.
The Ladiesfund was established in 2007 as an initiative to provide financial security to women and to promote and train women entrepreneurs. It aims to integrate the entrepreneurial needs based on the economic and social aspects of the local communities with respect to greater women participation in the workforce.
The conference started with recitation of the Holy Quran, followed by a welcome address by TU Dawood with an introduction to virtual businesses and how they are a fabulous option for women entrepreneurs. This was followed by a speech from British Deputy High Commissioner Francis Campbell, who was the chief guest. He spoke on the importance of entrepreneurship in Pakistan and how much it could help boost our economy.
To educate the budding entrepreneurs and students in the audience about what entrepreneurship really is, there was a short academic presentation by Avari Karachi General Manager Gordon Gorman. Then followed the first panel of the conference, which consisted of Mehrbano Sethi of Luscious Cosmetics, Ayaz Khan of Okra, and Wajeeha Malik of Olive Soap.
And as a pleasant surprise for the audience, Rohail Hyatt, the powerhouse behind the famous Coke Studio, joined the panel. This panel focused on the basics of entrepreneurship. They answered questions about the realities on entrepreneurship and what made them decide to become entrepreneurs.
The second panel comprised architect Naheed Mashooqullah, designer Hassan Sheheryar Yasin, and Naila Naqvi of Pie in the Sky and Chatterbox. They shared the inside scoop on how their brands tipped to being the best in their industries, despite facing the problems that all Pakistani entrepreneurs face, like electricity, human resources, etc.
They talked about expanding businesses, and whether expanding through other people, platforms or on your own is a better option. This was followed by a question-answer session. At the end was an art auction by Mehreen Ilahi of the Majmua Art Gallery to raise funds for the DGF, followed by a lucky draw conducted by the chief guest.
The conference was moderated and hosted by Sidra Iqbal. TU Dawood finally presented the plaques to the chief guest and panellists. The event concluded with thanking all the sponsors, supporters, students, event catalysts, volunteers and ambassadors. Funds raised from the LEC 2011 are audited by Ernst & Young Ford Rhodes Sidat Hyder, and go toward Ladiesfund Fellowships & Scholarships as well as women development initiatives.


http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2011/09/women-entrepreneurs-discuss-experiences-triumphs-and-losses/

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a Daily Times report on State Bank of Pakistan's National Financial Literacy Program:

...Pakistan’s first-ever NFLP has been launched with the support and collaboration of Asian Development Bank (ADB), Pakistan Banks’ Association (PBA), Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN), Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) and Bearing Point.

He said the programme has been developed after the Financial Literacy Gap Assessment Survey of beneficiaries. The survey has been helpful in development and adaptation of curriculum and dissemination strategy. The curriculum will also be translated into national and main regional languages including Urdu, Sindhi, Punjabi, Pushto and Balochi, he added.

The SBP governor said that the programme is financed under the ADB-funded Improving Access to Financial Services Fund (IAFSF) and implemented under the oversight of the IAFSF committee, which has representation from SBP, PBA, PPAF, PMN, education sector, and the ADB. Upon completion of the pilot phase, an impact assessment of the pilot will be conducted by a third party, he said, adding that based on the experience and assessment of the pilot, the programme will be scaled-up to target more than half a million beneficiaries all over the country.

Anwar said that in addition to focused training sessions of beneficiaries, the dissemination strategy involves street theatres, board games, comic strips, activity-based competitions, website and media campaigns to reach out to the masses on a larger scale. The training sessions will be sourced from banks, Microfinance Banks (MFBs) and Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) based on their interest and pre-defined qualification criteria, he said and added that in order to encourage and incentivise participation from partners, professional fees and out of pocket expenses of partners will be reimbursed from the programme budget.

Besides involvement of local institutions, the project has formed international partnerships with international financial education programmes including Microfinance Opportunities, Finmark Trust, Association of Microfinance Institutions of Uganda (AMFIU), Sewa Bank, Microfinance Innovation Centre for Resource and Alternatives (MICRA), World Bank Institute, Aflatoun, and others, Anwar added.

The SBP governor said that consumer protection and financial education should be vital components of any financial inclusion initiative. It is now clear that policies, which focus entirely on changing the supply of financial products and services can leave consumers ill-informed, vulnerable and not willing to participate in financial markets, he said, adding that focus of financial literacy programme should be broader than financial inclusion.
-------------
He briefly touched upon various conventional and non-conventional measures adopted by SBP to boost financial inclusion.

SBP introduced Basic Banking Account (BBA), a simplified financial product for low income consumers.

SBP introduced Microfinance Banking Regulations in 2001 to specifically meet the demands of low income consumers.

SBP has adopted innovative solutions to overcome geographical barriers, including branchless banking through retail agents and harnessing technology via mobile-phone banking.

SBP has been managing various market interventions funded by donor agencies:

- The Institutional Strengthening Fund providing grant funding to microfinance providers to top and middle tier MFBs and MFIs for key investments in HR, IT, product development, risk management systems, business plans and branchless banking development.

- The Microfinance Credit Guarantee Facility to link microfinance with financial markets for mobilization of wholesale commercial funding through partial guarantees...


http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\01\21\story_21-1-2012_pg5_16

Riaz Haq said...

Pakistan plans disaster insurance, reports Reuters:

Pakistan plans to roll out a national insurance scheme, making it mandatory for every citizen to be covered against risks from natural hazards, the head of the country's disaster management authority said on Wednesday.

Pakistan is highly vulnerable to earthquakes, cyclones, droughts, floods, landslides and avalanches. Devastating floods in 2010 disrupted the lives of 20 million people – many more than the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami – and cost $10 billion.

"Pakistan is making it mandatory for the entire population to be covered against disaster risks. The idea, at the end of the day, is to cover the lives and livelihoods of the population of the entire country," said Zafar Iqbal Qadir, chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority.

"Most parts of our country are vulnerable … either to disasters, or to poverty, or to both."

Qadir, who was speaking at a regional conference on "managing the risks of climate extremes and disasters in Asia", said Pakistan's cabinet has approved the plan and his agency was working on a comprehensive risk insurance plan that would hopefully be rolled out by the end of the year.

The country had already received a $500-million World Bank loan to set up a fund to pay for the plan, he said.

Authorities also intend to tap private sector money through their corporate social responsibility schemes as well as local philanthropists, he added.

And he said a meeting held with international insurance companies to discuss the issue in Karachi last month was positive.

Last month, a major report by the United Nations said the world needed to prepare better to deal with extreme weather and rising seas caused by climate change, in order to save lives and limit deepening economic losses.

SUBSIDISED PREMIUMS

The U.N. climate panel report forecast that all countries will be vulnerable to an expected increase in heat waves, more intense rains and floods and a probable rise in the intensity of droughts.

It suggested possible strategies to help countries adapt and prepare better such early warning systems, improving building standards and preserving ecosystems such as mangroves.

Financing disaster recovery and rebuilding through micro-insurance was another tool, the report said, which would help limit the already-strained cash reserves of poor nations.

"We are considering subsidising premiums for those who can't afford and paying full premium for those who are living below the poverty line," Qadir said, adding that it was essential that those most vulnerable, who are often the poorest, were covered.

Pakistan plans to pre-negotiate payments with insurance companies and also discard the need to file claims, said Qadir, as disaster insurance would need to reach people quickly.

"The best part is that communities which are prone to disasters are currently dependent on someone to come to respond to their needs, someone to feed them and give them shelter. We would remove the dependency syndrome of communities," he said.

"We would like them to be getting (a) response, within a few hours of the disaster occurring, from the insurance world."


http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/pakistan-plans-hazard-risk-insurance

Unknown said...

mr riaz we very well know the situation in pakistan... it is the 12 th failed state... i accept that poverty is in india.. but india is doing well in eradicating it..even china after india has many poor people in the world but we all know its progress and so do we know india's... it is requested that u stop critisizing us and first look at ur problems.... don't u see pakistan news channel.. they themselves talk about india's progress and how miserable and pathetic their condition is .. better focus on ur development and we'll focus on our's....stop comparing countries and think of u can eradicate all social issues present in ur country.. every country has problem and every country tries to solve it except pakistan.. u can't even stop terrorism funded by ur ISI and state actors .. it's a sad situation to hear .. too bad u don't even have any solution..ur state is pathetic...learn from china if not from us...

Riaz Haq said...

Here's an assessment of Pakistan's Rural Support Network Program:

In the global search for poverty alleviation and sustainable development, Pakistan’s ‘Rural Support Programmes Network’ remains little known, yet offers enormous potential for the eradication of rural poverty across the world today.

The power of a collective community vision is what Pakistan's little known 'Rural Support Programmes Network' (RSPN) has used to empower rural communities to alleviate poverty. RSPN, Pakistan’s largest rural development NGO, is one of the most effective rural poverty alleviation models of the previous three decades. Yet its secret is surprisingly simple - community organizing.

The Network consists of eleven Rural Support Programmes, or RSPs. Founded in the early 1980’s, the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) was created to improve agricultural productivity and raise incomes in poor, remote northern regions of Pakistan. Building on the success of AKRSP, other RSPs spread across the country, out of which came the birth of RSPN in 2000.
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Since its inception, the model has received widespread international recognition. The World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group noted the RSPN's "impressive record of performance”. It has also been described as the NGO encapsulating one of 13 development ‘Ideas That Work’. Founding RSPN Chairman Shoaib Sultan Khan was nominated for Nobel Peace Prize for his work in "unleashing the power and potential of the poor". He has addressed the UN General Assembly to showcase RSPN's proven model of sustainable development.

Yet if the model is really so effective why has there not been an even greater transformation across rural Pakistan, especially given the high concentration of rural poverty? After all, the RSPN model has been widely replicated outside of Pakistan. In 1994, the UN Development Programme requested that RSPN Chairman Shoaib Sultan Khan set-up demonstration pilots of the model in Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The success of those pilots led India to subsequently launch a similar countrywide programme that benefited over 300 million poor.

One reason for this discrepancy lies in the very secret of RSPN's success; the RSPN model is an effective but long-term one, where significant results can only be gauged in the long-term over periods of more than a decade. As such, international aid agencies fail to provide the level of support RSPN needs to kick-start the crucial early stages of new programmes across different regions. These agencies have also failed to continue servicing current programmes before rural communities achieve some semblance of self-sufficiency.....


http://www.globalpovertyproject.com/blog/view/603

Riaz Haq said...

ISLAMABAD: Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) has been a success story for the welfare of the people of Pakistan. Its various initiatives especially Emergency Relief Package (ERP) to help conflict ridden people in tribal areas and victims of terrorism has been a phenomenal step. This was declared by a delegation of journalists from leading newspapers of Indonesia during its meeting with Federal Minister and Chairperson BISP, Madame Farzana Raja in BISP secretariat. The journalists appreciated BISP’s performance and were of the view that the Programme’s success in the social sector of Pakistan has been an overwhelming experience for them. The Indonesian journalists said that the welfare of the people is the primary responsibility of the state and through BISP; Pakistan has been able to achieve this objective to a great extent.
Madame Farzana Raja on the occasion informed Indonesian journalists that BISP has introduced Waseela-e-Haq (Right to Livelihood), Waseela-e-Rozgar (Right to Employment), Waseela-e-Sehet (Life and Health Insurance) and Waseela-e-Taleem (Right to Education) for its beneficiary families which are bringing sustainable economic growth in the society by empowering people from lower strata. Chairperson BISP said that BISP in the lights of the Millennium Development Goals of the UN is striving hard to provide basic health and education facilities to 7 million families. She said that the wellbeing of the people is the primary role of a welfare state. Federal Minister said that BISP is working for making Pakistan a progressive welfare state where most deserving families are provided ample opportunities to become self-reliant.

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a Guardian report on social entrepreneurship in Pakistan:

The social enterprise landscape in Pakistan is nascent but fast-growing. From diverse sectors ranging from dairy farms to educational hubs to micro drip irrigation, early-stage enterprises have the potential of achieving hybrid financial return and social impact. Crucially, they are attracting interest from impact investors and business angels alike.

But how can these entrepreneurs be better financed, nurtured and trained?

Crucially, funding for small enterprises should meet the specific needs of the entrepreneur from seed financing to venture capital to growth equity. Social entrepreneurs need financial, but also non-financial, support such as mentoring, implementation guidance, and skills training development. Business school 'accelerator' programs and incubator hubs, which aim to accelerate the development of successful enterprises through such support mechanisms, combined with strong policy frameworks, can help create a long-term, self-sustaining ecosystem.

A report launched today by the Economic Policy Group (EPG) explores how incubator hubs can unlock the innovation potential of Pakistan's social entrepreneurs.

Successful incubator models already exist in some of Pakistan's premier business schools. The country's top business school, the IBA in Karachi, has in fact launched a partnership with Invest2Innovate (i2i), a social impact intermediary, to fast track the best entrepreneurs through its i2i Accelerator, a four-month program providing access to quality entrepreneurship education, skills, and opportunities.

"The IBA-i2i partnership helps start-ups who have passion and ability, but not the resources, to start their own businesses. It is a necessary step for growing and scaling viable businesses in the Pakistani market," says Kalsoom Lakhani, founder of i2i.

Other independent incubators across Pakistan, such as the Pasha Social Innovation Fund and Women's Business Incubation Centre, work with entrepreneurs across demographic segments in both rural and urban areas. The rise in popularity of these players is largely due to their ability to harness technology and digital media as communication platforms to empower entrepreneurs.

In the northern areas of Pakistan, where honey is one of the main agricultural commodities, Hashoo Foundation's Honeybee Project provided women beekeepers with beehives, as well as the associated training programmes to transfer this specialised skill-set to the wider community.
------------
According to Dr Iman Bibars, regional director of Ashoka Arab World, "creating awareness for the potential of entrepreneurship among policymakers, relevant institutions and the public at large is essential to help establish an enabling environment that social entrepreneurs can flourish in."

On a macro level, the investment in human talent and institutions will raise both investor confidence and entrepreneurial confidence in the country. By changing minsets through incubator hubs, education, mentoring and training programmes, a strong enabling environment for social entrepreneurship can be fostered in Pakistan.


http://socialenterprise.guardian.co.uk/social-enterprise-network/2013/feb/07/pakistan-social-entrepreneurs-innovation-potential

Riaz Haq said...

Here's ET on increasing e-banking in Pakistan:

The overall value and volume of e-banking transactions throughout the country increased during the second quarter (October to December 2012) to Rs 7.6 trillion (18.02 per cent)and Rs 79.45 (11.31 per cent) million respectively, the State Bank of Pakistan reported on Wednesday.

State Bank of Pakistan’s Payment Systems report for the second quarter of FY13 released today revealed that the branches of 484 banks in Pakistan were added to the Real-Time Online Branches (RTOB) network during the second quarter of the current fiscal year (FY13) and now 94 percent branches are offering online banking services.

Calculating the overall internet banking services across the country, overall 9,896 branches of banks out of 10,523 are offering the service. During the second quarter, the overall value and volume of internet banking transactions had seen an increase in of 18.82 percent and 14.29 percent in the overall value and volume of internet banking from the first quarter of 2012, respectively.

The Payment Systems infrastructure in the country had also seen an increase because of the installation of 245 new Automated Teller Machines at banks around the country. Today, the number of ATMs across Pakistan has reached a total of 6,232. The report further said that ATM transactions had a major share of 61.12 percent in terms of transaction volume with an average value of Rs9,779 per transaction.

The overall e-banking transactions in value terms was 6.27 percent during the second quarter, increasing the value and volume of ATM transactions by 10.33 percent and 10.68 percent respectively in the second quarter as compared to the first quarter of the current fiscal year.

The report also said that over 20.72 million banking cards were issued in the country by the end of December, 2012, witnessing an increase of 5.33 percent in the second quarter compared to the preceding quarter.

Point of Sale (POS) terminals showed a growth of 6.25 per cent and 5.06 per cent in value and volume respectively as compared to the first quarter of the current fiscal year, with value and volume of transactions standing at Rs22.1 billion and Rs4.5 million, respectively, in the second quarter.

The report also pointed out an increase of large-value payments through Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) with 9.46 percent in value and 10.35 percent in volume as compared to the first quarter. The recorded value and volume was Rs42.13 trillion and Rs12.16 billion respectively in the second quarter.

The report also revealed that major portion for the increased number of overall Pakistan Real Time Interbank Settlement Mechanism (PRISM) transactions increased 14.06 percent during the same period, which was contributed by Interbank Funds Transfers (IBFT). Similarly, the value of overall PRISM transactions increased by 14.96 percent due to securities settlement.


http://tribune.com.pk/story/506723/e-banking-transactions-cross-rs7-trillion-state-bank/

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a Daily Times report on solar lights in Pak villages:

Creating a new micro-finance system to empower women with a unique blend of production of much-needed renewable energy to electrify over 50,000 power-deprived villages of Pakistan is the best ever innovation so far being implemented successfully by Bukhsh Foundation in various villages of Punjab.

Over 100,000 villagers are the direct beneficiaries of this project under which solar lanterns have been provided to around 50 houses each in 40 selected villages of Punjab where electricity was an imaginary thing for people, even in this modern era of second decade of the 21st century. Hence the project has achieved 10 percent of its target, 90 percent is left to reach the mark of lighting one million lives.

The project titled Lighting a Million Lives (LaML) has been implemented successfully in 10 villages of Sahiwal, besides achievements in Lodhran, Minawali, DG Khan, Dera Ismel Khan and other villages.

The cost of the project in one village is $5,500 (over Rs 50,000).

Besides lightening their house and proving these villagers the facility to continue their household work with an ease at night, mobile charging units have also been installed and sustainable employment opportunities have been created for over-40 needy women of these village. These women are now known as “roshna bibi” or “light lady” in the village. These chargeable lanterns remain active 6-8 hours depending on selection of light strength mode. Light charging system have been installed in the house of light ladies and this charging system is connected to the solar panels installed on the rooftops of their homes.

Each light lady charges Rs 4 to charge the lantern with the solar system every time and out of this amount she deposits Re 1 to a bank’s account for repair works, while the rest of Rs 3 is her earning. She earns around Rs 1,000 a day to support her family. Most needy women – mostly widows – have been selected to make them self reliant under this micro-credit project, launched with the help of various donors. The villagers have been provided lanterns free of cost.

Buksh Foundation, a concern of HKB Group, was established in 2009 with its two offices in Lahore – in Shahdara and Township – to provide soft loans of up to Rs 100,000. Later, Buksh Energy, a sister concern of the foundation, was also established, when CEO Faiza Farhan met with Indian Nobel laureate Dr Pachauri, who is also the director of Teri Technical Energy Resource Institute, at an energy summit in New Delhi.

India’s Teri institute was already working on this project and they had provided electricity to some 260-plus villages in the last few years.

Now, this model is also available in Uganda and Bangladesh.

With some innovations and local wisdom, Ms Faiza brought this project to Pakistan. Now, Teri is the technical partner of Buksh Energy. Out of total 40 villages, Coca-Cola provided funds for lightening of 15 villages in Sahiwal, Jahangir Tareen supported 14 villages in Lodran, USAID supported 15 villages in Bahawalpur and Imran Khan Foundation supported three villages – one each in Mianwali, DG Khan and Dera Ismael Khan. Engro Corp, Silk Banks, Bank Alfalah and UBL are some other donors....


http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013%5C05%5C21%5Cstory_21-5-2013_pg7_16

Riaz Haq said...

Not long ago, we put out a podcast that asked the question “Would a big bucket of cash really change your life?” That episode looked at whether winning a land lottery in antebellum Georgia significantly altered a given family’s financial future. University of Chicago economist Hoyt Bleakley, who studied that 1832 lottery, told us this:
BLEAKLEY: We see a really huge change in the wealth of the individuals, but we don’t see any difference in human capital. We don’t see that the children are going to school more. If your father won the lottery or lost the lottery the school attendance rates are pretty much the same, the literacy rates are pretty much the same. As we follow those sons into adulthood, their wealth looks the same in a statistical sense. Whether their father won the lottery, lost the lottery, their occupation looks the same. The grandchildren aren’t going to school more, the grandchildren aren’t more literate.

http://freakonomics.com/2013/11/27/fighting-poverty-with-actual-evidence-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/


Now enough of these (cash to the poor) programs are up and running to make a first assessment. Early results are encouraging: giving money away pulls people out of poverty, with or without conditions. Recipients of unconditional cash do not blow it on booze and brothels, as some feared. Households can absorb a surprising amount of cash and put it to good use. But conditional cash transfers still seem to work better when the poor face an array of problems beyond just a shortage of capital.

When Give Directly’s founder, Michael Faye, went to traditional aid donors with his free-money idea, he remembers, “They thought I was smoking crack.” Silicon Valley, though, liked the proposal—perhaps because Give Directly is a bit like a technology start-up challenging traditional ways of doing things (in this case, aid). Google contributed $2.4m; Facebook, $600,000

http://www.economist.com/news/international/21588385-giving-money-directly-poor-people-works-surprisingly-well-it-cannot-deal

Riaz Haq said...

#Pakistan to have 100 million bank accounts by 2025. #financialinclusion #banking

http://tribune.com.pk/story/999299/one-minute-bank-account-pakistan-to-have-100-million-bank-accounts-by-2025/ …


“Thanks to the concept of the one-minute bank account, the industry is opening close to a million accounts a month,” he said.

There were a total of 41.7 million bank accounts in Pakistan at the end of last fiscal year, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). More than 31.3 million accounts, or 75% of all bank accounts, belonged to the personal accounts category.

The SBP has recently modified the regulatory framework to quicken the bank account-opening process with the help of the national database authority.

“NADRA is the real-time online depository of the biometric impressions of close to 100 million people,” Hussain said, adding that utilising its database had so far resulted in eight million one-minute accounts.


The industry expects 50 million accounts by 2020 and 100 million accounts by 2025. Assuming the average balance of Rs1,000 in these accounts, Hussain said these accounts will bring as much as Rs100 billion back into the banking system.

It will also make access to credit possible for people and small businesses that are currently unable to borrow from commercial banks, he noted. “A bank account is the centre of gravity for financial inclusion,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Lucky Cement CEO Muhammad Ali Tabba said his group had plans to invest $1.8 billion in the next four years. “The economy and the security situation are on an improving trajectory. The feel-good factor is prevailing,” he said.

Urging people to “believe in Pakistan,” Tabba said the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will be a game-changer for the economy. “I think $46 billion investment will materialise and transform Pakistan into a major economic hub.”

Addressing the audience, Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal said Pakistan has undergone a huge change since 2013. “The world now considers Pakistan an important player in the region, as Chinese investments would integrate Pakistan with Central Asian countries.”

The CPEC will bring development and prosperity in the country with investment of up to $5 billion in infrastructure and networks of roads and bridges, he said.

Riaz Haq said...

Pakistan cracks down on sketchy digital lending

https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/28/pakistan-cracks-down-on-sketchy-digital-lending/


Pakistan’s markets regulator issued new guidelines for digital lending in the country, cracking down on several sketchy practices that it said have become prevalent in the South Asian market.

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan said Wednesday evening that non-banking finance companies that disburse loans through digital channels, including mobile apps, will be required to disclose key fact statements such as the credit amount they are granting to consumers, annual percentage rates, duration of the loan and “all fee and charges.”

The non-banking finance firms will be required to share these key facts with consumers through audio or video and emails and text messages in both English and Urdu languages. “Any fee not included in key fact statement will not be charged to the borrower,” the regulator said (PDF) in a press release.

These firms will also not be able to access borrower’s phone book or contacts lists or pictures on the device “even if the borrower has given consent in this regard,” the regulator said. (You can read the full guidelines here {PDF}.)

“The lender shall also not be allowed to contact the persons in the borrower’s contact list, other than those who have been specifically authorized by the borrower as guarantors and who have also provided their consent to the digital lender at the time of loan approval,” it added.

The move follows the regulator noticing a rise in mis-selling, breach of data privacy and “coercive” recovery practices of licensed digital lending companies” and to safeguard public interest, it said.

Neighboring nation India also introduced strict rules surrounding digital lending in a move that has toppled the local fintech industry.

https://www.secp.gov.pk/document/circular-no-15-of-2022-requirements-for-nbfcs-engaged-in-digital-lending/?ind=1672222021650&filename=Circular-No.15-of-2022..pdf&wpdmdl=46436&refresh=63ac43d13db561672233937