Islamic microfinance sector is aggressively making progress by effectively addressing the deficiencies and challenges faced by the traditional microfinance industry. According to a press release issued by Islamic Microfinance Islamic Microfinance Network (IMFN) here on Monday, at the moment, about 300 Islamic microfinance institutions are effectively operating around the globe.
Seeing the tremendous performance of Islamic microfinance institutions, now conventional microfinance institutions are opting for Islamic financial practices for success in poverty alleviation. In order to address all the challenges and opportunities in Islamic microfinance, IMFN was launched in 2010 with the aim to provide a unique and common platform for national and international Islamic microfinance institutions (MFIs). The activities of IMFN include co-ordinating the efforts of its members in jointly addressing the poverty alleviation, establishing best practices in Islamic microfinance, developing guidelines and the implementation thereof so as to comply with Shariah law.
Now the membership is being opened for national and international organisations, which are serving in the Islamic microfinance sector. The membership is available for practising Islamic microfinance institutions (in operation) as permanent members while others like conventional microfinance institutions are also welcomed as observer members, so as to enable them equipped with Islamic microfinance system and practices. It is not only for the institutions while the academicians and advisors can also become the member of this network.
Zubair Mughal, Chief Executive Officer of IMFN, said it is a common responsibility of the industry stakeholders to address the things at one platform to brush up and standardise the business practices with an objective towards poverty alleviation, as over 17,000 million people live below the poverty line in the entire world of which 44 percent live in the Muslim majority countries, which become the prime reason behind Islamic microfinance.-PR