Expanding Access to Credit for Women: Report And
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Report and Recommendation of the President to the Board of Directors Project Number: 52124-001 January 2019 Proposed Loan Kashf Foundation Expanding Access to Credit for Women (Pakistan) This is an abbreviated version of the document approved by ADB's Board of Directors that excludes information that is subject to exceptions to disclosure set forth in ADB's Access to Information Policy. CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS (as of 12 November 2018) Currency unit – Pakistan rupee/s (PRe/PRs) PRe1.00 = $0.0075 $1.00 = PRs133.83 ABBREVIATIONS ADB – Asian Development Bank BDO – business development officer GAP – gender action plan GDP – gross domestic product MFB – microfinance bank MFI – microfinance institution MSMEs – micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises NBFC – nonbanking finance company NPL – nonperforming loan PMN – Pakistan Microfinance Network SECP – Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan NOTES (i) The fiscal year (FY) of Kashf Foundation and of the Government of Pakistan ends on 30 June. “FY” before a calendar year denotes the year in which the fiscal year ends, e.g., FY2018 ends on 30 June 2018. (ii) In this report, “$” refers to United States dollars. Vice-President Diwakar Gupta, Private Sector and Cofinancing Department Director General Michael Barrow, Private Sector Operations Department (PSOD) Director Christine Engstrom, Financial Institutions Division, PSOD Team leader Tina Rohner, Investment Specialist, PSOD Team members Pierre Bailet, Principal Counsel, Office of the General Counsel Ka Seen Gabrielle Chan, Safeguards Specialist, PSOD Asif Cheema, Principal Investment Specialist, PSOD Shaheryar Ali Choudhry, Senior Investment Officer, Pakistan Resident Mission, PSOD Tarang Khimasia, Senior Guarantees and Syndications Specialist, PSOD Manfred Kiefer, Senior Economist, PSOD Mohsin Monnoo, Senior Investment Specialist (Syndications), PSOD Raneliza Samiano, Safeguards Officer, PSOD Grachelle Talicuran, Associate Safeguards Officer (Environment), PSOD In preparing any country program or strategy, financing any project, or by making any designation of or reference to a particular territory or geographic area in this document, the Asian Development Bank does not intend to make any judgments as to the legal or other status of any territory or area. CONTENTS Page PROJECT AT A GLANCE I. THE PROPOSAL 1 II. THE FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARY 1 A. Investment Identification and Description 1 B. Business Overview and Strategy 3 C. Ownership, Management, and Governance 4 III. THE PROPOSED ADB ASSISTANCE 5 A. The Assistance 5 B. Implementation Arrangements 5 C. Value Added by ADB Assistance 6 IV. DEVELOPMENT IMPACT AND STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT 6 A. Development Impact, Outcome, and Outputs 6 B. Alignment with ADB Strategy and Operations 6 V. POLICY COMPLIANCE 7 A. Safeguards and Social Dimensions 7 B. Anticorruption Policy 8 C. Assurances 8 VI. RECOMMENDATION 8 APPENDIXES 1. Design and Monitoring Framework 9 2. List of Linked Documents 11 Project Classification Information Status: Complete PROJECT AT A GLANCE 1. Basic Data Project Number: 52124-001 Project Name Expanding Access to Credit for Department PSOD/PSFI Women /Division Country Pakistan Borrower Kashf Foundation (KF) qq 2. Sector Subsector(s) ADB Financing ($ million) Finance Inclusive finance 15.00 Total 15.00 qq 3. Strategic Agenda Subcomponents Climate Change Information Inclusive economic Pillar 2: Access to economic Climate Change impact on the Project Low growth (IEG) opportunities, including jobs, made more inclusive Qq 4. Drivers of Change Components Gender Equity and Mainstreaming Private sector Promotion of private sector Gender equity (GEN) development (PSD) investment qq 5. Poverty and SDG Targeting Location Impact Geographic Targeting No Rural High Household Targeting No Urban Medium SDG Targeting Yes SDG Goals SDG1, SDG5, SDG10 qq 6. Nonsovereign Operation Risk Rating Obligor Name Obligor Risk Rating Facility Risk Rating Kashf Foundation (KF) 7. Safeguard Categorization Environment: FI-C Involuntary Resettlement: Indigenous Peoples: FI-C FI-C Qq 8. Financing Modality and Sources Amount ($ million) ADB 15.00 Nonsovereign LIBOR Based Loan (Regular Loan): Ordinary capital resources 15.00 Cofinancing 10.00 Others 10.00 Others a 0.00 Total 25.00 Currency of ADB Financing: USD a Derived by deducting ADB financing and Cofinancing from Total Project Cost. Source: Asian Development Bank This document must only be generated in eOps. 19112018155500972171 Generated Date: 07-Jan-2019 8:51:54 AM I. THE PROPOSAL 1. I submit for your approval the following report and recommendation on a proposed loan of up to $25,000,000, comprising (i) an A loan of up to $15,000,000 and (ii) a B loan of up to $10,000,000, to Kashf Foundation for Expanding Access to Credit for Women in Pakistan. The B loan will be syndicated by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to impact investors and other eligible participants on a best-effort basis, subject to market conditions. 2. The loan will support Kashf Foundation’s lending to low-income women, female micro- and small entrepreneurs and low-cost schools in Pakistan. An increase in Kashf Foundation’s capacity to provide critically needed financial products to this underserved segment will (i) significantly improve the financial access of women, especially those belonging to poor rural households; and (ii) help improve and sustain their livelihood and incomes. The ADB loan will also support the diversification of Kashf Foundation’s funding base and strengthen its balance sheet by providing longer-tenor financing, thereby enabling it to provide longer-maturity financial products to its clients. II. THE FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARY A. Investment Identification and Description 3. The long-run gross domestic product (GDP) growth of Pakistan is characterized by repeated cycles of rapid growth followed by slowdowns. After expanding at an average GDP growth rate of 6.2% during FY2003–FY2008,1 GDP growth slowed during FY2008–FY2013 to an average rate of 3.0% because of a challenging investment climate, high inflation, and an unresolved energy crisis.2 Pakistan’s economy has gained positive momentum since FY2014, and GDP grew 5.8% in FY2018—the highest growth since FY2007.3 ADB projects GDP growth of 4.8% for FY2019, in light of the pressing need to deal with large budget and external imbalances.4 4. Finance sector. The finance sector in Pakistan is underdeveloped and characterized by low access to finance primarily because of heavy investment by banks in government securities and risk aversion of certain customer segments. Total bank assets increased 15.9% in FY2017 to PRs18,342 billion. Customer deposits grew 14.4% from PRs11,798 billion in FY2016 to PRs13,012 billion in FY2017. Net advances grew 18.4% from PRs5,499 billion in FY2016 to PRs6,512 billion in FY2017, but remain at 35.5% of total banking industry assets in Pakistan.5 The loan–deposit ratio for the Pakistan banking industry was 50.1% in FY2017 compared with 73.3% in India and 87.7% in Bangladesh. The capital adequacy ratio of the industry was 15.8% at the end of FY2017 under the Basel III standard as compared with 15.9% at the end of FY2016.6 1 Government of Pakistan, Ministry of Finance, Finance Division. 2008. Pakistan Economic Survey 2007–08. Islamabad. 2 Government of Pakistan, Ministry of Finance, Finance Division. 2016. Pakistan Economic Survey 2015–16. Islamabad. 3 Government of Pakistan, Ministry of Finance, Finance Division. 2017. Pakistan Economic Survey 2017–18. Islamabad. 4 ADB. 2018. Asian Development Outlook 2018 Update: Maintaining Stability Amid Heightened Uncertainty. Manila. 5 State Bank of Pakistan, Financial Stability Department. 2018. Quarterly Compendium: Statistics of the Banking System. Karachi. 6 Basel III is an international regulatory accord that introduced a set of reforms designed to improve the regulation, supervision and risk management within the banking sector. 2 5. Microfinance. Microfinance plays a vital role in the country’s finance sector, as it addresses market gaps. Pakistan has 52 entities with microfinance operations. These are mainly microfinance banks (MFBs), microfinance institutions (MFIs), rural support programs, and other entities with microfinance operations as part of their multidimensional service offering. MFBs provide credit; take deposits from the general public; and are regulated by the central bank, the State Bank of Pakistan. MFIs provide microcredit to clients but do not raise deposits from the general public. Rural support programs provide microcredit as part of an array of service offerings.7 6. Since 2005, microfinance has grown nearly 12 times in terms of borrowers and 29 times with respect to outstanding credit, with about equal growth from MFBs and MFIs.8 As of the second quarter of 2018, outstanding credit in the microfinance industry had reached PRs239 billion. The industry targets increasing the active borrower base of microfinance entities from 6 million in 2017 to 10 million by 2020.9 Most clients of microfinance entities are females, who constituted 53% of active borrowers as of FY2017. The urban–rural ratio of active borrowers was 47:53 during the fourth quarter of 2017.10 7. MFIs, including Kashf Foundation, are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and provide finance to two defined categories of borrowers: (i) Poor person. Nonbanking finance company (NBFC) regulations define a poor person as an individual with meager means of subsistence and whose total business income, excluding expenses, during a year is