Zafar Roshaneh
Organization: Kashf Foundation
Year Founded: 1996
Country: Pakistan
Website: www.kashf.org
The Kashf Foundation is Pakistan’s first specialized microfinance institution, pioneering new products and providing door-to-door microfinance services to the urban poor. Focus: Financial Inclusion, Microfinance, Women Geographic area of impact: Pakistan Model: Social Business Number of direct beneficiaries: 319,517 (December 2008) Annual budget: US$ 16,722,892 (2009) Percentage earned revenue: 29% Recognition: Schwab Fellow of the World Economic Forum Background The average per capita income of Pakistan is below US$ 1,000 and 34% of the population lives in poverty. The role of microfinance in Pakistan continues to be fragmented with just a few institutions and organizations providing access to only 1% of those in need of microfinance services. Several factors constrain growth in this field, including the perception that the poor are not creditworthy, a general lack of credit discipline in the overall economy, a low ability to enforce contracts and lack of viable lending approaches. Inspired by the success of the Grameen Bank, the Kashf Foundation (Kashf means “miracle” or “revelation” in Urdu) works to alleviate poverty by providing quality and cost-effective microfinance services to low income households, especially women, to enhance their economic role and decision-making capacity. Innovation and Activities The Kashf Foundation remains on the cutting edge of innovation directed at poverty alleviation. With a well trained and growing staff base of 1,600 employees in 152 branch locations in Punjab and Sindh, the foundation offers customers two loan products: a general loan (up to US$ 138) for building economic opportunities, and an emergency loan (up to US$ 35) for families to meet unplanned expenditures or emergencies. In 2008, it established the Kashf Microfinance Bank, which enables the Kashf group of companies to realize its vision of financial inclusion by offering clients affordable deposit services. In 2008-2009, Pakistan’s economy shadowed the global economic meltdown, and over the past year the Pakistani economy has faced many challenges, including a growing fiscal deficit, a plummeting exchange rate, and increased inflationary pressure caused by rising energy and commodity prices. To help clients deal with this, the Kashf Foundation has introduced a capital recovery loan pilot where clients that were adversely affected by the economic crisis are given a new credit line to strengthen their businesses. The foundation also intends to pilot a strategy for providing microfinance services to low-income households in rural markets. Additionally, it is undertaking research and development on new products such as Shariah-compliant microfinance to extend outreach in more traditional areas. The Entrepreneur Roshaneh Zafar comes from an established Lahore family of intellectuals. She received her BSc in Finance and BA in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and a MA in International Development Economics from Yale University. Roshaneh worked as a WID/Community Participation Specialist at the UNDP and World Bank. In 1996, she founded the Kashf Foundation. Roshaneh is also the founding member of the Pakistan Microfinance Network and a member of several NGOs, including Women’s World Banking and the UN Advisory Group on Inclusive Financial Services. She is also on the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Gender Gap. In 2005, Roshaneh was awarded the Tamgha e Imtiaz, one of Pakistan’s highest civilian awards, by the president of Pakistan.
<< back