Date : 05/09/2012
KUWAIT, Sept 5 (KUNA) -- Islamic Microfinance is a viable means to curb
poverty, a specialized report by Kuwait Finance House (KFH) said Wednesday
Addressing poverty continues to be one of the greatest challenges faced by
governments around the world today. In Islam, a person is considered poor if
he/she does not have sufficient material wealth in hand to meet his/her basic
needs, i.e. to protect one's religion, physical self and family, seek
knowledge or education, and accumulate some wealth.
Islamic microfinance is indeed unique, as it is a mixture of economic,
social and religious principles: economic, social and religious, the report
noted, pointing out that there are two types of resources that can be
mobilized for Islamic microfinance purposes, external resources such as Zakat
and charity and internal resources like deposits and equity.
The first Islamic version of the microfinance model was developed in Egypt
in 1963. As overall Islamic finance has become more developed, parties have
revisited microfinance as a new asset class, which can raise the levels of
societies while providing itself to be a profitable business model for Islamic
financial institutions, the report said.
Institutions such as the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and the World Bank
have also allocated resources to study the viability of Islamic microfinance.
IDB has recently taken further steps to fund certain Islamic Microfinance
Institutions (IMFIs). In 2009, the Islamic Microfinance Network (IMFN) was
established to develop and promote the Islamic microfinance industry, it added.
In recent years, driven by the demand for Islamic microfinance, some MFIs
have started to offer Islamic microfinance products to low-income Muslim
clients. In Afghanistan, for example, strong demand for Shariah-compliant
microfinance has caused the Foundation for International Community Assistance
to switch its conventional products to non-interest bearing Murabahah Islamic
financing.
However, Islamic microfinance is still in its nascent stage and currently
forms part of an informal economy. A 2007 global survey on Islamic
microfinance undertaken by Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) shows
that Islamic microfinance has a total estimated global outreach of only 380,
000 customers and accounts for only around 0.005% of total microfinance
outreach. Currently, there are more than 200 IMFIs around the world.
The slow growth in Islamic microfinance is mainly due to the fact that such
facility was usually provided by specialized institutions such as NGOs, and
not by Islamic banks, despite the many elements of microfinance which can be
considered consistent with the broader objectives of Islamic banking, the
report concluded. (end)
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