During the last ten years, Pakistan-based Akhuwat, the world’s first completely interest-free microfinance program, has disbursed $30 million to over 1 million people, without charging any interest. The company now has more than 1,000 regular employees and offices in 105 cities of Pakistan across the country. Their mission is to challenge the interest based system and challenge Islamic finance to evolve out of its current complacency with interest-mimicking products towards products based on the foundational principles of equity, sharing, and gifting and therfore fight poverty.
The Global Islamic Microfinance Forum will be held on 8th to 10th December in the World Trade Centre in Dubai. The purpose of the forum is to porpagate Islamic microfinance across the world and to strengthen the dialogue with international donor and development agencies.