LAHORE (PR) Dr Muhammad Amjad Saqib, the founder of the Islamic micro finance company, Akhuwat, met with Alan Hatfield, executive director for strategy and development at ACCA’s London headquarters on July 12, 2019.  Dr Saqib was in London to speak at an event organised at the House of Lords, the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and also wanted to meet with the global professional body to discuss his organisation’s initiatives to promote literacy and microfinance in Pakistan, and around the world.

In Pakistan, micro finance is proving popular amongst the growing SME sector; SMEDA, the country’s SME development authority, calculates that nearly 90% of companies are SMEs, most of them operating in the informal sector, so the demand for micro finance is also growing.  Akhuwat was set up in 2001 and provides interest free loans to the economically poor so that they may acquire a sustainable livelihood.