NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, June 27, 2016

LAHORE — The first quarter of 2016 has recorded an upward trend in microcredit outreach with active borrowers reaching an all-time high of 4 million while the gross loan portfolio of the sector crossed Rs100 billion, said the Pakistan Microfinance Network quarterly report.

“Growth of microcredit outreach continues to be driven by microfinance banks (MFBs), whose active borrowers and gross loan portfolio increased 12.1% and 16.1% respectively,” it said.

According to the report, in the Jan-Mar quarter, the National Rural Support Programme microfinance bank was the largest contributor. It added 59,210 new borrowers and increased its loan portfolio to Rs2.1 billion, becoming the fourth largest provider of microcredit in the sector.

The bank’s growth was fuelled by the livestock sector where 31,000 new borrowers were financed. It was followed by the agriculture sector that added 24,000 new borrowers.