Yemen will Host an International Workshop on Islamic Microfinance

Islamic Microfinance is getting appreciation by the whole world for alleviation of poverty and Muslim and non-Muslim Countries are utilizing it. Microfinance Institutions in Arab Countries are also providing Microfinance to Muslims which is in accordance with Islamic standards in order to get poor out of obscurity of poverty. Amongst these Arab Countries, Yemen is at the top of the list with other countries like Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Egypt.

Due to the escalating popularity of Islamic Microfinance in Arab countries with the intention to increase the reach of Microfinance Institutions, AlHuda Centre of Islamic Banking and Finance and Yemen Microfinance Network is going to arrange 2 days training workshop on Islamic Microfinance on 16^th & 17^th September, 2012 to be held in the Capital City of Yemen - Sana’a, in which different topics like the proper utilization of Islamic Microfinance for alleviation of poverty in poor countries, Islamic Microfinance Products and their structure, Shari’ah principles of Microfinance and MicroTakaful would be discussed.

The Chairman of Yemen Microfinance Network, Mr. Mohammed Al Lai has declared the arrangement of this two days international workshop on Islamic Microfinance, a good step for the Microfinance sector. He said that Islamic Microfinance is rapidly growing in Yemen and the workshop like this will provide more awareness about it.

Chief Executive Officer of AlHuda Centre of Islamic Banking and Economics, Mr. Muhammad Zubair Mughal has said that AlHuda has established a separate department for the promotion of Islamic Microfinance, named as “Centre of Excellence in Islamic Microfinance” so that awareness, consultancy and training could be provided to the Microfinance Institutions and in this regard, during this year, workshops will be arranged in Yemen, Azerbaijan, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Indonesia and Niger. He further said that the purpose of this training in Yemen is to make Arab countries aware of the importance and benefits of Islamic Microfinance which is in accordance with the religious beliefs of Arab Countries because in Arab Countries, people avoid conventional microfinance due to the factor of interest and remain stuck in poverty. So, Islamic Microfinance is very much needed to alleviate poverty in Arab countries. It should be noted that in spite of abundant oil and natural resources in Arab regions, some Arab countries are having poverty in them like 23% people in Iraq, 18% in Iran, 34.8% in Yemen, 13.3% in Jordan, 12.5% in UAE, 28% in Lebanon and 11.9% in Syria are living under the poverty line.