Pakistan and Afghanistan Commit to Strengthen Microfinance Sector

Islamabad: Both Pakistan and Afghanistan, being neighbouring developing countries in the Asian region, can benefit by developing and promoting the financial Infrastructure to support microfinance through continuous knowledge and skill sharing experiences of their respective markets.

This was said in the press statement following the meeting of Ghalib Nishtar, President, Khushhalibank with the visiting officials from Afghanistan representing the microfinance sector that included, Bahram Barzin, Director Technical Support, Monitoring and Supervision, Microsoft Investment Support Facility for Afghanistan (MISFA), and Mr. Najibullah Samim, Executive Director, Afghanistan Microfinance Association (AMA), and Patmana Rafiq Kunary, Member Services Specialist, Financial Access for Investing in the Development of Afghanistan (FAIDA)

It was agreed at the meeting that both countries have got immense potential to benefit from wide and rapid promotion of microfinance services in all of its rural and urban areas to tackle poverty and unemployment.

During the meeting, President Khushhalibank, Ghalib Nishtar, said Pakistan has a conducive business environment for microfinance and Khushhalibank has been working both as a catalyst and a lead Institution in stabilizing Pakistan’s microfinance sector with an objective of retailing microfinance services on a sustainable basis. “Both Afghanistan and Pakistan can learn a lot from each other, and the cooperation and collaboration among our microfinance Institutions and experts could ultimately help overcome their deep-seated socioeconomic challenges through access to sustainable financial services in both countries.

Being one of the largest microfinance entities of the region currently having served nearly three million relationships and over four hundred thousand active clients, Khushhalibank has been also ranked as the premier microfinance organization in the Asia Pacific by the Microcredit Summit Campaign (MSC), a mega project of the RESULTS Educational Fund, which is a U.S. based organization committed to ending hunger and poverty at the grassroots level.

On their special visit to Pakistan the Afghan officials who belonged to the APEX, the network and microfinance capacity building Institution from Afghanistan showed their interest in working through joint collaboration with the Pakistani microfinance sector so that both countries could achieve the desired results within a short span of time by constantly exchanging knowledge and expertise in the given areas.

For more information, contact:
Khushhali Bank
94 West, Fourth Floor, Jinnah Avenue, Blue Area
Islamabad
Pakistan
Telephone: +92 (51) 111 092 092
Fax: + 92 (51) 920 6080