Islamic Microfinance: Landscape, Models and Future Prospects

Islamic microfinance is one of the major sectors of Islamic social finance which is playing very important role in curbing poverty and improving living standard, per-capita income, level of employment in the society and achieving Maqasid al-Shariah, profitability and sustainability. This role of Islamic microfinance has become more crucial in pandemic period. As it has been clearly witnessed in developing countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh that how Islamic microfinance institutions helped deprived and effected communities during pandemic. Another major development has been seen in pandemic which is related to the introduction of blended models of Islamic microfinance such as waqf based Islamic microfinance, zakat-based model and combination of Islamic commercial and social finance. There is an expectation that these blended models will bring sustainability and innovation in the product and services line of microfinancial institutions. The landscape of Islamic microfinance is expanding at a global level and various models have been implemented which vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Though the sector is growing, the market share of Islamic microfinance is much lower than the conventional finance. On the other hand, tech savvy youth, high level of smart phone penetration and increasing internet penetration are crucial to the fintech and these are ready to utilize in Islamic microfinance sector. The important success factors for the industries have been changed due to tech revolution and also due to pandemic. The businesses are preferring providing services through digital channels. Islamic Microfinancial institutions are also aiming to harness the power of digitalization and fintech, but they need to consider the required success factors for realizing and reaping the true benefits of technologies. There are some major challenges regarding regulations, management issues, lack of skilled talent, wide level of digital divide, and low level of financial literacy in developing countries. These challenges must be addressed to secure stability, and constant growth and achieve sustainability in this sector. The proposed book is a compendium on Islamic microfinance that covers all the above-mentioned agendas and areas in addition to case studies of seven jurisdictions and prospects of this sector. The proposed writing will be a great contribution to the literature of Islamic economics and finance as well as a guiding book of equal importance for students, academia, institutions, regulators, fintechs, policy makers and the general public