ISLAMABAD: The microcredit outreach has reached 2.8 million borrowers during 2013 as compared to 2.3 million active borrowers last year, showing a healthy growth of 19 per cent.
The growth rate, being highest in the last five years, was the result of better microfinance policies of the government.
An official information issued by Ministry of Finance has revealed that the total Gross Loan Portfolio (GLP) also increased from Rs32 billion in 2012 to Rs52 billion in 2013, showing an increase of 61 per cent.
The increase in GLP is due to a combination of increasing outreach and rising loan sizes as Khushhali Bank Limited (KBL) continues to remain the largest Micro-Finance Provider (MFP) with 5,22,000 borrowers and a GLP of Rs9.66 billion.
Women borrowers continue to make up bulk of the borrowers with a total share of 55 per cent. Moreover, 57 per cent of the borrowers belong to rural areas.
Micro-savings stood at Rs34 billion at the close of the year 2013 up from Rs23 billion in 2012.
It said in case of micro-insurance, 12 per cent growth was observed with policy holders increasing from Rs2.85 million in 2012 to Rs3.2 million at the end of the year 2013. The sum insured rose from Rs36 billion to Rs44.0 billion while credit life continues to dominate this segment with a share of 61 per cent.
National Rural Support Programme (NRSP) remains the largest provider of micro-insurance in the country, it said and added with the advent of micro-insurance regulations it is hoped that this segment will experience growth and increase in the number of products and services.
New players continue to enter into the microfinance and branchless banking arena as a number of new players launched their branchless banking operation in the previous year, bringing the number of branchless banking systems deployed in the country to six.
The industry infrastructure was also strengthened with launch of a national level dedicated credit information bureau for the microfinance industry.
As discussed above, the sector has become quite diverse in terms of the types of institutions, and products and services.
In addition to the private sector, the government has also introduced schemes of interest free loans and youth business finance.
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