ISLAMABAD: The microfinance sector witnessed 47.3 percent growth in its aggregate micro-credit portfolio, which grew to Rs136.9 billion till December (2016-17) compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal year. During the corresponding period fiscal year 2015-16, the micro-credit portfolio stood at Rs92.99 billion, according to the official data.
The number of borrowers also registered an impressive growth of 21.7 percent, increasing to around 4.6 million at the end of the period, the data revealed.
At the close of quarter ended in December FY17, around 51 institutions were involved in providing microfinance services, which included eleven deposit taking microfinance banks (MFBs) while others were Non-Bank Microfinance Institutions (NB-MFIs). The NB-MFIs continued to serve a large number of borrowers i.e. 57% during the period under review. However, MFBs took lead in terms of the aggregate value of loans and served 66% clients and average loan size of Rs43,433, which were more than twice the size of loans offered by their non-banking contestant i.e. Rs 17,739.
On year on year basis, the sector was able to expand its retail business network to 3,220 locations as of December FY17, adding 260 new business locations across the country compared to the corresponding period of 2015.
At the close of 3rd quarter of FY2017, eleven deposit taking microfinance banks (MNFBs) were involved in extending complete range of micro-banking services.
The aggregate loan portfolio of MFBs grew by 57 percent to reach Rs100.7 billion compared to Rs64 billion in corresponding period of last year.
Likewise, the number of borrowers increased from 1.6 million to 2.08 million registered an increase of 31 percent. The deposit base of MFBs managed to exceed Rs120.4 billion compared to Rs66.3 billion in March 2016 with a corresponding increase of 109 percent in outreach of deposit services made available to over 22.6 million depositors. At the close of period MFBs were successfully operating thorough a network of 712 branches, according to data.
