Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

This research provides an overview of micro finance industry in Pakistan. Micro Finance in Pakistan is at its initial stage. The organized micro finance activities started in 2001 as a result of Micro Finance ordinance 2001. The establishment of first micro finance bank of Pakistan is the result of this ordinance. The poverty level in Pakistan is about 33% to 35%. It means one third of the population of 150 Millions people of Pakistan is below the poverty line. The women are much more vulnerable then men. The gap between the rich and poor increases day by day. It will further adverse the situation in the society. Micro finance is the tool that can bring the positive change in the life of the poor people of Pakistan. The government of Pakistan and some other organization like Khushhali bank, Kashf foundation, Micro Finance Bank of Pakistan, etc. doing there efforts to increase there out reach but there are a large numbers of challenges in the way that barrier the out reach as a whole and particularly for women.

The importance of micro finance is realized by the every segment of the society but unfortunately in spite of all theses facts the out reach of micro finance specially the women outreach are very limited. In Pakistan the out reach are 7 % to 10 % (PMN) of the total people need micro finance services. According to Pakistan Micro Finance Network (PMN) 10 millions people needs micro finance services but we were able to reach about 0.7 million at the end of june 2006 and most recently means in April 2007 the anticipated outreach are about 1 million according to Pakistan Micro finance Network (PMN).

I concerned here with the outreach of micro finance in Pakistan, which is very limited. As mention before women out reach are more adverse and limited. It affects the total out reach in the country. The research, which is conducted by the Khushhali bank, a key player of micro finance in Pakistan Working Paper "Challenges and Prospects" mainly focused on the broad aspects or we can also say the macro aspects like what the Government needs to do. How the government can regulate and facilitate the system for poor customers. In this working paper researcher identify some major issues that prove a stumbling block for the out reach but the researcher never goes through about the details that why these problems are and how we can solve these in order to increase the out reach of micro finance in Pakistan. I try to pick the gap, which remains vacant in the previous research. For example in the previous research the researcher only identify the problem that one of the barrier to the out reach of micro finance in Pakistan is the "obstacles for micro finance out reach to women" but he does not gives any detail that why this happening and how we can solve or eradicate the issue.

This research mainly done to find out that why the women are vulnerable in Pakistan, why the mobility of women are limited, and how we can empower the women in order to make easy accessibility of women to the micro finance services in Pakistan. How we can increase the out reach of micro finance in Pakistan in the context of women. I try to touch every player of micro finance active in Pakistan. I try to reach every possible source. I collect the data about the subject matter through interviews. I interviewed the professionals, workers, authorities and the customers and general public who can be the potential market of micro finance in Pakistan. In my research I try to collect the data both from rural as well as urban Pakistan in order to depict the true picture. The research findings are mainly related to the lack of education, skill, resources, lack of information, Institutional limitation, and lack of economic opportunities and also some baseless cultural believes that limit the outreach of micro finance for women in Pakistan.

In my opinion these findings are very important because it is the voices of the parties involve and also these voices from the very root level so these depict the very true picture of the situation going on as the micro finance is concerned. But the practical applications of these findings are very challenging to overcome on these issues for the underdeveloped country like Pakistan.