‘Akhuwat’ CEO Visits Los Angeles
Dr. Amjad Saqib, the CEO and founding Chairman Board of Directors of a renowned nonprofit organization ‘Akhuwat’ Pakistan ( www.akhuwat.org.pk) visited Los Angeles and addressed a gathering of Pakistani-American business leaders, community members and philanthropists on March 29, 2012. While addressing the gathering of supporters, he informed that his organization’s chapter in the US has been registered with the State of California and its 501c3 nonprofit status is being awaited from IRS, which he hoped will be granted soon.
He said, the purpose of his current visit to the US was to address an elite gathering of over 200 audience at the Harvard University’s ‘Enterprise and Finance Forum’ on their invitation. He intended to reach ‘1000 Americans’ during his trip starting from New York and covering Washington DC, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas so as to raise awareness about the unique model of Akhuwat and mustering support of Pakistani-Americans for the noble cause. The response has been overwhelming, he added.
While highlighting the strengths and innovative micro credit model of Akhuwat, he said, “Akhuwat was started in 2001 with the objective of providing interest-free micro credit to the poor and a single micro loan of PKR 10,000 to 40,000. AKHUWAT today has 54 branches in Pakistan and registered status in Pakistan, UK and soon in USA. Its micro loan disbursement portfolio is over PKR 1.2 billion with active loans 31,343 and recovery rate 99.85% which is enjoyed by no other micro finance organization in the world.
Its unique interest-free micro credit model is being taught as a case study at a US and a UK university and articles about it have been written in academic journals of Harvard, Stanford, Cambridge and Oxford Universities. Its guiding principles are Muwakhat (brotherhood), qarz-e-hasna (interest-free small business loans), volunteerism and turning grant receivers into grant givers in the long run. Akhuwat’s mission is to bring about a social revolution in Pakistan by serving people with loans on zero interest, zero profit and zero processing fee so that they become productive citizens”.
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