Microfinance Forum foresees technology to support an inclusive financial sector

Pakistan Microfinance Forum 2009 with a special emphasis on Mass Accessibility & User Friendly Resources was held in Islamabad today. Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Syed Salim Raza inaugurated the conference and delivered the keynote.

The Forum attracted healthy participation of microfinance practitioners and institutions, international organizations, donor-agencies, academia and other financial experts, including member organizations of the Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN).

Governor State Bank in his keynote address said that a dynamic financial sector is emerging to provide financial services to all. Stressing that mobile technology is now fuelling banking worldwide, he was clear that technology and commercialization was the way forward for microfinance to give meaning to the slogan financial services for all.

He added that the State Bank of Pakistan has formulated a comprehensive policy and strategic framework for microfinance, which strikes a balance between risk and growth.

The well-attended forum was the third in a series of microfinance conferences, being conducted annually in Pakistan by Shamrock Conferences International with the purpose of sharing insights and experiences of institutions and practitioners in pursuit of developing an elaborate infrastructure for providing broad based micro-credit facilities.

The proceedings began with a welcome note from Menin Rodrigues, Chairman of the Conference. He appreciated the professional commitment of all delegates and partner institutions in contributing towards the success of the moot. Syed Mohsin Ahmed, CEO, PMN gave an Overview of the Microfinance sector indicating that there is direct relationship between financial access and poverty/income per capita. He said Pakistan has an excellent policy framework and is amongst four countries globally with a national strategy for microfinance. Setting the tone for the days proceedings, Governor State Bank, Salim Raza lauded the Forum as a valuable effort towards understanding the challenges and dynamics of the microfinance sector and invited speakers to debate on how new ideas can be generated as a way forward.

The first session on Policy & Regulatory was chaired by Ms. Kathleen Wu, Deputy Director, Office of Economic Growth, USAID, with the Joint Director, Microfinance SBP, Qazi Shoaib Ahmed presenting a review of the existing Policy & Strategic Framework highlighting its capacity to expand and assist the sector. Ghalib Nishtar, President and CEO, Khushhali Bank stressed that policies and regulations are not cast in stone and need to evolve and respond to changes in environment and dynamics of the marketplace. It requires a focus on innovation and change that facilitates access of financial service across population irrespective of their economic thresholds.

The Regulatory deliberations concluded with a presentation by Yasir Ashfaq, General Manager , Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund who elaborated on the impact of Regulation & Policy to the overall microfinance business in Pakistan .

Dr. Rashid Bajwa, CEO, National Rural Support Program (NRSP) was the chairman of the second session that covered Performance Trends in Microfinance. It began with a Financial Review of the Microfinance Industry by Ms. Mehr Shah, Financial Analyst, PMN which was followed by a presentation by Kamran Azim, the Chief of Operations at Kashf Foundation, who identified the Current Challenges in Microfinance. The third presentation was a synopsis of the Effects of Micro-Insurance in Rural Areas delivered by Capt. Mehmood Sultan, Senior General Manager, Adamjee Insurance Co. This session came to an end with detailed comments on Islamic Microfinance (A Tool for Financial Inclusion) presented by Prof. Mohammad Khaleequzzaman, Islamic Finance Advisor, FINCON-Canada, an advisory agency of the Asian Development Bank.

Efficiency and Innovation in Microfinance was the topic of the third session, where the Chairperson was Mr. Saquib Mohiuddin, Chairman, National Institute of Competitiveness. Shahid Mustafa, Group Executive Director, Tameer Microfinance bank, spoke about the benefits of Branchless Banking as the way forward. This was followed by a paper on Innovative Approaches for Financial Inclusion presented by Ms. Sadaffe Abid, CEO, Bukhsh Foundation, an innovative initiative for poverty alleviation.

The closing session featured Dr. Rashid Bajwa, CEO, NRSP, who proposed the strategic Way forward for the sector. He identified the key points brought out by the distinguished speakers during the day and concluded that the microfinance sector in Pakistan must recognize change in market dynamics, evolve an inclusive policy framework, strategize the need for reaching out to people for mass credit accessibility and work towards a balanced financial services for all approach. He appreciated the role of microfinance institutions in the economic progress of the country and thanked Shamrock for organizing the event professionally.

In the end the Chairpersons and Speakers were presented with the conference mementos to acknowledge their contributions. The conference concluded with a Vote of Thanks by Dr. Amoon Kamal, Head of Conferences, Shamrock Conferences International.