By the end of its first year in operation, the organization had reached over 4,500 clients, an outstanding loan portfolio of almost $700,000, and a repayment rate of 100%.
In each of these provinces, FINCA established branch and market offices in the provincial capital, as well as outlying cities and districts.
Since its inception, FINCA Afghanistan has offered a line of sharia-compliant microfinance products, developed after careful vetting with local religious leaders, and confirmed through a fatwa acquired from Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt.
It is one of the most popular modes of exchange used by banks in Islamic countries to promote interest-free transactions (interest being forbidden by sharia law).
Aside from being Afghanistan’s first sharia-compliant microfinance organization, FINCA can perhaps claim to have created one of the world’s first Murabaha group-lending products.