Non-Islamic: Al-Majmoua

We finally heard back from Al-Majmoua in Lebanon! Sadly, they too do not provide Islamic microfinance:

From: Youssef Fawaz

Dear Ashiq,

Thank you for your interest in Al Majmoua.

As you can see from our profile on Kiva, Al Majmoua offers regular micro-loans , whether based on group or individual lending.

We have been piloting an sharia compliant loan in a couple of markets in Lebanon for the past year, but our experience so far has not been very encouraging. While it is too early to draw any lessons from our pilot project, but the preliminary signs indicated that there does not appear to be a huge market for Islamic loans. Perhaps this is due to the fact that this country has an oversupply of commercial banks (65) and where the financial sectors has been the backbone of the national economy for more than 60 years.
Be that as it may, if we do find a market for Islamic loan products we will be very interested in pursuing it.

Wishing you the best of luck with your Kiva sub-group.

Kind regards,

Youssef Fawaz