Experts at Muslim Aid microfinance meet

Leading scholars and academics on Development and Islamic Finance from around the world are meeting in Colombo from April 23 to 27 for a consultation workshop on microfinance organised by Muslim Aid. The experts will help Muslim Aid as an organisation to perfect its unique microfinance policy and develop different models that work on the basis of zero percent interest in keeping with Islamic teachings, so that beneficiaries incur no costs at all, according to a Muslim Aid press release.

Muslim Aid, a London-based development and humanitarian agency, says it wants to create a diverse range of tested, effective and sustainable microfinance products which are distinctively interest-free by 2010. Field officers from Muslim Aid offices in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Indonesia, Sudan and Somalia will participate.

Interest-free micro finance projects have helped to reduce extreme poverty of over 100,000 people by creating employment and livelihoods in Bangladesh, Somalia, Sudan, Sri Lanka and Lebanon. The Colombo conference will be attended by Osama Abdelwahab from the UK, a specialist on Islamic finance, and Shah Abdul Hannan from Bangladesh, Chairman of Islamic Economic Research Bureau.

Academics Dr Martin Greeley, a rural development expert from UK and Professor Ansir Ali Rajput from Pakistan, an entrepreneurship specialist, will also be contributing their knowledge and experience, the release said.