Pakistan's Khushhali Bank to disburse Rs 3bn in 2005
Pakistan Times Business & Commerce Desk

ISLAMABAD: The Khushhali Bank plans to expand its network to 75 districts to disburse about Rs.3.0 billion with strategic focus on the rural areas of the country by the end of current year.

The bank has a network of over 130 service outlets across 64 districts of the country. It has processed nearly 400,000 loans valuing about Rs 4.0 billion and with a predominantly rural portfolio.

President Khushali Bank Muhammad Ghalib Nishtar stated this while talking to APP here Saturday. “In terms of our business plans for 2005, we plan to expand our network to 75 districts, expect disbursement of nearly Rs 3.0 billion with a strategic focus on the rural areas “, he remarked.

Ghalib Nishtar said a task force was set up in the Ministry of Finance in February 2000 comprising stakeholders to chalk out a road map.

He observed that formal financial sector outreach has remained limited and specially extended the financial sector outreach to the marginalized and the less privileged that were out of bound of our traditional banking system in economic priority.

Khushhali bank, he said, in just over three years “we built the largest Microfinance Institution in the country and one of the fastest growing in South Asia”.

This promises huge potential for future expansion of microfinance activities and is especially true for remote rural areas where commercial and other formal institutions have limited exposure, he added.

“There is thus a tremendous potential for setting up branches, service posts or mobile delivery schedules to remote communities to expand client outreach”, he said.

Ghalib Nishtar said once branch viability systems and procedures are established, the potential for quick replication of the franchise across diverse territories and environments can be capitalized upon.

However, he said that providing financial service access to a much larger number of people in Pakistan will require creating a number of institutions.

So far, he said the response from the private sector has been encouraging with four Institutions licensed under the framework by state Bank of Pakistan in the last 48- month whereas more are expected by year-end.

Khushali bank, he said is the lead institution within this framework and all efforts over the past four years have been to develop an efficient distribution system capable of handling large volume of business across diverse operating environments while at the same time, developing an insight into the market.

“Today, Khushali bank has a network of over 130 service outlets across 64 districts of the country; has processed nearly 400,000 loans valuing about Rs 4.0 billion and with a predominantly rural portfolio”, he added.

The bank, he said has successfully bridged with bilateral and multilateral development agencies to simultaneously focus on highly marginalized territories in Sindh and Balochistan and route human and capital investment for sustained results with minimal lead-time.

Without such partnerships - which bring valuable global experiences to Pakistan- the development of marginalized areas may not remain within the realm of strategic priorities manifesting expansion in productive areas only, he observed.

Incidentally, 2005 also happens to be the United Nations declared Year of Micro-credit -global spotlight has moved on to the microfinance industry, perhaps rightly so since probably no other development tool ha attracted so much global attention in the recent history of poverty focused development Intervention than microfinance.●