Micro borrowers rise to 7.1mln in Q1

LAHORE: Micro borrowers have increased to 7.1 million in the first quarter of 2019 from 6.9 million in the last quarter of 2018, data showed on Thursday.

According to the quarterly outreach report of the Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN), the quarter under review also witnessed strong growth in the Gross Loan Portfolio (GLP) of the industry increasing by five percent to surpass Rs288 billion, as compared to over Rs274 billion in the previous quarter.

This significant growth was primarily driven by the microfinance banks (MFBs) whose number of active clients was raised by 5.5 percent and GLP by six percent.

Growth in microcredit outreach remained modest as the microfinance banks continued to witness unprecedented rise in their GLP. Khushhali, Telenor and Mobilink microfinance banks made up 37 percent of the total portfolio of the market with over Rs106 billion.

The largest contributor was Telenor Microfinance Bank which added approximately 56,000 new borrowers during the quarter. Akhuwat remained the largest provider in terms of active borrowers to the sector with 999,930 borrowers and a loan portfolio of over Rs17 billion.

Overall, industry’s portfolio at risk (PAR) >30 days increased slightly from 2.2 percent to 2.4 percent, primarily within the MFB and MFI peer groups.

In terms of microsavings, the number of savers has seen a considerable growth of 11.6 percent reaching 39.4 million as compared to 35.3 million in 2018, whereas, the value of savings declined in this quarter to Rs237.3 billion.

Ubank contributed the most with Rs1.2 billion, with TMFB and Finca following behind. Moreover, Mobilink Microfinance Bank remained the market leader with 45.6 percent of the total active savers in the sector.