14th anniversary being marked today: Khushhalibank will now focus on medium enterprises: Nishtar

President Khushhalibank Pakistan Ghalib Nishtar has said that the bank will now shift its focus from micro finance to medium enterprises as this sector is not being properly catered by the incumbent financial institutions.
In an exclusive interview with Business Recorder, Ghalib Nishtar, who is the founding head of the Khushhalibank Pakistan, said that his bank is celebrating its 14th anniversary on Monday (today). He gave an overview of the bank's area of coverage and performance and future strategy.
In reply to a question, he said that his bank has decided to focus on medium enterprises as this sector can create jobs and investment is also safe.
He was of the view that microfinance sector presents great opportunities over the next 4-5 years. While there is an overall recession in the global financial industry, there is an opportunity in emerging markets like Pakistan particularly within the segment that Khushhalibank serves ie the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. "We are planning to expand our business over the period by pursuing a proactive and aggressive strategy." Answering to another question, he said that presently, the main focus of his was on small loans but now he will also focus on agriculture including crop insurance.
"Now wherever we will offer new loans, focus will also be on crops insurance as two per cent of the cost will be borne by the government," he added. The president of Khushhalibank Pakistan said that the bank has 120 branches across Pakistan and are covering almost all districts of the country.
He said, "Nowadays, the bank is focusing more on those areas where an economic activity is high like southern Punjab and irrigated Sindh besides other provinces and AJK.
"We have around 2500 people out of which majority is within our sales and distribution function," he added. He said there are nearly 3 million loans serviced and the bank's outstanding portfolio is nearly Rs 7 billion with half a million active clients. Like any other retail bank, Khushhalibank Pakistan assesses the business plan, cash flows and debt servicing ability of the client and business but the difference is that his bank targets only low income segments.
"We give loans for one year and pre-dominantly operate in the rural areas where the lending pattern is cyclical according to crop seasons," he continued.
Khushhalibank offers a range of financial services to clients that include loans, deposits, payments, transfers etc to support income generation but regulations restrict us to lend to low income groups with incomes less than the taxable income limit. The bank has a sales force of about 1000 boys and girls who introduce programme to the clients at their door step every day. These people can avail the bank's services to support and expand their business and the impact study on Khushhali undertaken by the Asian Development Bank Institute evidenced positive impact on household income and indicators of social well being in terms of women empowerment, expenditure on children education and health. Replying to another question, he said Khushhalibank is conscious of its responsibility as a corporate citizen. The bank, which was launched by the former Finance Minister, Shaukat Aziz, supports a number of humanitarian initiatives under our CSR programme focusing on women & youth; the purpose is to achieve equity.
"We have articulated a strategic plan for the next five years and expect to maintain our market leadership besides developing a financially strong and profitable bank, which is poised to be a regional leader in the micro financing, small and medium and enterprise space," he maintained.
Ghalib Nishtar is the founding president of Khushhalibank, Pakistan's largest microfinance bank. He is regarded as the pioneer microfinance banker of Pakistan's burgeoning microfinance industry, and has been a critical force in demonstrating the success of microfinance in Pakistan with Khushhalibank as a leading benchmark. He was the part of the process initiated by the Government of Pakistan to reform the financial sector under the Microfinance Sector Development Programme in 2000. Under his leadership Khushhalibank has emerged as Pakistan's premier microfinance Institution with a nation-wide outreach; Pakistan now ranks amongst the top three countries on the Economist intelligence Unit's Global index.