The First MicroFinance Bank

Following the demise of the Taliban regime, AKDN established two microfinance programmes in the country, the Emergency Microcredit Programme and the Rural Microcredit Programme. Based in Kabul, Pul-i-Khumri and their adjoining districts, the Emergency Microcredit Programme provided a financial safety net for retunes by offering credit for start-up, restarts and expansion of income generating activates in those areas. In 2004, the urban portion of the Emergency Microfinance Programme in Kabul was converted into The First MicrofinanceBank with an initial capital of US$ 5 million invested by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) later joined by Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (kfw), the institution was the first of its kind under the country's new regulatory structure and was granted license #001 under the new banking law in the autumn of 2003. In 2005, the urban portions of the emergency microfinance programme in Pul-i-kumri and Mazar-e-Sharif were also absorbed into FMFB-A. The Bank provides credit and saving products as well as domestic and international payment services. If focuses on micro-enterprises small business and the creation of productive sources of income and employment. Beginning in Kabul and urban centers in the northeast of the country, the Bank is gradually expanding to all major urban and rural centers of Afghanistan with a view to reaching national coverage in the next years. The establishment of the Bank is an integral part of the AKDN's commitment to contribute to the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the economic infrastructure and civil society institutions in Afghanistan. Deposits