 Alright, we have looked at microfinance in general, conventional microfinance in the lost module and now we would like to see how Islamic microfinance works. Probably in this module we would have only a general view on Islamic microfinance but in the modules to come we would go into further details. Now Islamic microfinance involves provision of small amounts of financing usually in the form of help towards buying merchandise or any other income generating asset. So, this is something we should keep in mind in case of Islamic microfinance. In case of conventional microfinance, there is provision of money. Here in a number of cases Islamic microfinance actually helps a person to buy merchandise or another income generating asset to help the targeted family person to have a sustainable source of income. So, like conventional microfinance, the objective is to contribute to sustainability of income. It is now being practiced in a number of countries notably Indonesia and also in Pakistan. Now, Indonesia being the largest Muslim country in terms of population and widespread poverty in a number of states, the use of Islamic microfinance in different states or provinces of the country is making a huge difference to the lives of poor people. Having said that, I must inform you that Islamic microfinance is only 1% of the global Islamic financial services industry which is very unfortunate given that there is huge poverty in the Muslim world. Apart from the countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council and some other countries which are rich Muslim countries, a vast majority of 56th or 57th member countries of the Islamic Development Bank, they face poverty. And Islamic finance has contributed to poverty reduction only marginally and this is being reflected by 1% of the share of microfinance in the global Islamic financial services industry. Let us look at a basic structure of Islamic microfinance. So, we have an Islamic microfinance provider. This could be a company, this could be a charity and in some cases it could be an Islamic microfinance bank as well. Here I must emphasize that microfinance banks conventional so there is no single full-fledged Islamic microfinance bank in Pakistan. However, there are quite a number of very successful microfinance banks conventional in Pakistan. So, this Islamic microfinance provider could be a charity NGO or it could be a bank as well. So, it actually wants to offer financing of 50,000 to this person. So, this Islamic microfinance provider would buy this merchandise from the market and would sell it to the targeted person who would then do trade with it and would generate certain amount of income on a weekly basis, monthly basis say for one month after the trade the person generates a revenue of 120,000. Now, what is the difference between Islamic and conventional microfinance? In terms of the final outcome both Islamic microfinance and conventional microfinance they are the same and their objectives are the same. Their primary objective is to ensure that this targeted person has a sustainable source of income. So, in terms of economic outcomes both Islamic and conventional microfinance activities they are the same. However, Islamic microfinance does not involve interest and this is a major difference it makes a lot of difference for Muslim. If an activity is interest based this is prohibited if an activity does not involve interest that is acceptable. Also, there are some added features which we shall be covering in the modules to come that make Islamic microfinance more attractive and more valuable than its conventional counterpart. At the end of this module I would like to share with you some popular models of Islamic microfinance. The one which is being practiced in Pakistan by Akhuwat Foundation is interest free loan. So, interest free microfinance institutions this is one model. There is another model which is based on Mudaraba another one on Musharaka then we have a murabha based Islamic microfinance and of course there are some cases of Islamic microfinance where Salem is being used as the main contract and Salem based Islamic microfinance is very popular in Africa especially in Sudan. I have heard that there is one organization in Pakistan which has attempted to use Salem as part of its Islamic microfinance activity.