The Structure of Micro-Credit and Its Role in Poverty Alleviation in Pakistan - Advertising

These include micro-finance banks; nongovernmental organizations; rural support programs (like National Rural Support Program); commercial financial institutions (leasing companies); commercial banks and government-owned Institutions (such as National Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan Post Saving Bank, and the agricultural bank ZTBL), cooperatives and informal providers (informal lending mechanisms throughout Pakistan like family and friends, landlords, input providers, traders, and moneylenders). Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) is the main provider of wholesale refinancing to micro finance providers. It was launched with World Bank support. State Bank of Pakistan (the central bank of the country) is the supervisor of the formal banking sector, which includes the six micro-finance banks. The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) regulates Non-Banking Finance Companies, insurance companies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and rural support programs. A t least 11 bilateral and multilateral donor agencies fund micro-finance in Pakistan, along with several international NGOs and private funding agencies. The two largest fund providers are Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. Micro-finance schemes for self-employment, by commercial banks and other institutions such as the Small Business Finance Corporation (SBFC) and the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) are considered pivotal for creation of opportunities for educated youth since employment prospects have significantly worsened.Despite high expectations from these programs, experience with some schemes (e.g. the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's scheme of provision of Yellow Cabs to people at concessional rates to promote self-employment) has not been encouraging. The Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) which aimed to enable the "asset-less" to gain access to resources for productive self-employment by lending to micro-finance NGOs and banks and enhancing finan cial sustainability is one such example. After its launch, it had not disbursed any funds as of late 1999. The failure of such schemes in Pakistan can be generally attributed to their weak institutional structure, inefficient targeting, limited coverage and high default rates in the repayment of loans. The excessive bureaucracy is also a hurdle in the way of implementation of all these programs. Perhaps the largest operational micro-credit scheme is the joint venture of the large bank of the country Habib Bank Limited and a large NGO, the National Rural Support Programme i.e. NRSP (quoted from Social Policy and Development Centre, "Annual Review). There are probably currently only few NGOs that have potential for reaching scale. Loan sizes for these NGOs are all below Pakistani Rupees 50,000 and typically below Pakistani Rupees 25,000 for loans of six to 20 months (ADB: "The Role of Central Banks in Micro-finance in Asia and the Pacific: Pakistan"). There is a shortage of na tional data available about the micro-finance industry in Pakistan, due to which there is no idea about their sustainability. A report on micro-finance in Pakistan (SEBCON 1999, 9) had no numbers to report on either sustainability or outreach, stating only that "NGOs in Pakistan have been completely reliant on external funding sources". Even the large government-supported NGOs in its annual report include data on its clients and some disbursements but do not include a balance sheet and standard indicators of financial performance.Although, micro-finance has been successful to bring the poor to a level to sustainability, its target group in Pakistan is not constituted by the poorest of the poor, who need food and health security, but the ones who do not have access to commercial banks' loans. Even the minimal collateral requirements potentially exclude the poorest of the country.





iAutoblog the premier autoblogger software

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Affordable SEO Services Pakistan - What are they and what's in them for businesses the world over? - Search Engines - SE Optimization

Pakistan is the world's 6th largest nation by population out of 194 nations in the world. According to an estimate, Pakistan is also the world's 7th largest pool of scientists and engineers. The use of internet in Pakistan has been growing with rapid pace and today, according to Internet World Stats, there are 18,500,000 and counting internet users in the country making Pakistan the 7th largest pool of internet users in Asia. Businesses in Pakistan are also increasingly having their online presences made. There are now also several online Pakistani stores selling a huge variety of fine quality goods and services. Sensing a great e-commerce potential, tens of Pakistani companies that specialize in internet marketing have surfaced. These internet marketing companies are constantly updating themselves with all the latest knowledge of the field - one of them (Askoli) has even initiated a groundbreaking internet marketing research project - and regularly training their marketing...
Read more

Pakistani Mujra - Entertainment - Music

Mujra is a form of dance originated by tawaif (courtesans) during the Mughal period. Mujra incorporated elements of classical Kathak dance indigenous music such as thumri ghazals and poems or those from other cultures like Mughal Bahadur Shah Zafar. Mujra Mehfil was traditionally carried out in houses and special called Kothi. During the Mughal rule in India, in places such as Jaipur, the tradition of mujra show was a family art and often transmitted from mother to daughter among Muslim practitioners. Occupation is a cross between art and exotic dance, with performers often used as courtesans among Mughal royal families or wealthy patrons.During the Indian Mutiny of 1857 performances mujra opportunity for revolutionaries to meet and many tawaif have also been actively involved in the movement. Consequently, many Kotha were confiscated by the British after the Rebellion, disrupting the traditional estate tawaif. In early 1900, many tawaif had moved into the prostitution ind us...
Read more