Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN) released its quarterly outreach bulletin – MicroWatch – stating that the number of savers has seen substantial growth of 20 per cent reaching a historical high of 10 million savers by the end of Quarter 1 of 2015. Tameer Microfinance Bank (TMFB) has been the main driver adding 1.85 million new depositors to its portfolio with a staggering 53 per cent increase.
The number of active borrowers increased from 3.1 million in 2014 to an all-time high of 3.3 million in the first quarter of 2015. Whereas, the first quarter of 2015 has witnessed a strong growth in the gross loan portfolio (GLP) of the industry increasing by PKR 7 billion to reach PKR 73 billion as compared to PKR 66 billion in the last quarter of 2014. This significant growth was primarily driven by the microfinance banks whose number of active clients increased by 8.8 per cent and GLP by 12.7 per cent. The microfinance banks continue to witness unprecedented uptake in new borrowers and amount of loan disbursed. NRSP Microfinance Bank Ltd became the largest contributor in the first quarter of 2015 and added 42,176 new clients to its portfolio with loans work PKR 1.6 billion. With this addition it is now on the fourth largest provider of micro-credit in the industry.
Akhuwat as a microfinance institution proved to be the largest contributor to the sector by adding 39,000 new clients and a loan portfolio of PKR 627 million. Overall, industry’s portfolio at risk (PAR) 30 days deteriorated slightly from 1.1 per cent to 1.7 per cent, primarily within microfinance banks and rural support program peer groups.
Micro-insurance also exhibited a positive trend in the first quarter of 2015 – policy holders increased by 10.8 per cent while the sum insured depicted an increase of 9.9 per cent. Like the micro-credit, the increase in micro-insurance was also driven by Microfinance Banks.
The Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN) is an association of 50 microfinance practitioners with a focus on providing microfinance services to the low-income un-served segment of the population. The PMN’s mission is to “support the financial sector, especially retail financial service providers, to enhance their scale, quality, diversity and sustainability in order to achieve inclusive financial services.”
