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First women power

Our culture and traditions provide for minimum public contact between men and women. This provides an artificial barrier for women in the economic field, particularly in dealing with financial institutions. This is an unfair situation that disenfranchises the economic rights of women in developing their own capacity for livelihood, quite in contrast to the first woman in Islam who was a renowned entrepreneur. As a means to alleviate this handicap that favours the male prerogative, Ms Bhutto decided early in her first term to establish First Women Bank (FWB) having “economic empowerment of women” as its prime objective. Consequently FWB, with the experienced Ms Akram Khatoon as its first President, came into operation on 02 December 1989. Now celebrating its Sixth Anniversary of existence, FWB has certainly been successful in enhancing, in the words of Ms Akram Khatoon, “socio-economic status of women by creating opportunities for employment and self-employment in almost all the sectors of the economy”.

A bank run solely by women, mainly to promote women entrepreneurship, may have been a novel idea but there were plenty of skeptics as to whether this would be pragmatic, given the overwhelmingly male-dominated society in Pakistan. One of the major obstacles to overcome was the lack of trained staff as the other banks had an extremely sparse population of women and these were mostly in non-banking positions. Today, FWB has a network of 34 branches throughout the country, mostly in the major cities and towns, putting pessimists and doubting Thomases (mostly males) theory to the sword. Its focus presently in urban areas but FWB has not constrained its access to the rural population, with credit disbursement (with the innovative help of NGOs) in rural areas amounting to almost 9.7% of the total amount disbursed while fully 15% of the micro-businesses established by women with the help of FWB is from rural areas. Given Pakistan’s demography these are significant figures. To add to this approximately 4,500 women have entered into income generating activities mostly in Katchi Abadis and rural areas. Through conventional credit schemes almost 7,500 women entrepreneurs have established their businesses on a total loan disbursed of about Rs. 1.1 billion. Ms Akram Khatoon states that “going by the parameters that an investment of Rs. 25,000 creates one new job, FWB has helped in creating about 40,000 new employment opportunities”.

The Bank’s balance sheet is extremely impressive. Having assets worth Rs. 4.5 billion, it has attracted deposits of Rs. 2.3 billion. It’s pre-tax profit for 1995, based on the figures available in the first 10 months of the year, is conservatively projected at Rs. 72 million, almost double of that earned in 1994. When compared to other leading banks of the country as well as the pressures on the economy and consequently the economic turnaround, this has been a most impressive performance. All key progress indicators of the bank are favourable. On a pro-rata basis, considering its size it can be compared with the most dynamic of Pakistani banks today, Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB) with its almost 1,500 branches. FWB’s low administrative cost, highest recovery rate and its contribution for socio-economic uplift, being the first to introduce concept of banking for poor, has earned international recognition for the Bank, being given the “Euromoney Excellence” award for 1994. Profitability at a desirable level could not have been achieved in the face of low earnings from concessionary credit schemes floated for business women and offering attractive returns on savings without excellent fund management by experienced, can-do Finance Managers at the Head Office. This has been enhanced by the mobilisation of sizeable foreign exchange business and computerisation of 90% of the Bank’s working process as well as the maximum use of latest technology and orientation with the fastest means of transfer technology.

However potent may be the effectiveness of any institution, it is only as good or bad as the human resources it has, most important being the management team. FWB, in contrast to other financial institutions in the public sector in Pakistan has remained almost totally free of nepotism and corruption, a rather unequal task in the political environment obtaining from 1989 to 1995 where every “wish” must be acceded to. To the credit of Ms Akram Khatoon, she has provided an example that has honesty and integrity as its core. A simple, dedicated but tough professional, this calm and soft-spoken lady has been a salutary example down the line to executives and staff. As the President, 58 years old Ms Akram Khatoon, has provided outstanding leadership. Joining the banking profession in 1961 at the age of 24, having completed MA (Economics), she rose to be the Manager of the first Ladies Branch of MCB. She then became the first female area manager in Pakistan’s banking fraternity, looking after 10 Karachi branches of MCB’s East Region. Thereafter she worked as Deputy Head of Personnel in MCB before becoming Chief of Recruitment and Training Division. With this excellent background, Ms Akram Khatoon was the odds-on choice to be the first President of FWB in 1989 at the age of 52. Her deputy, Ms Zeba Mumtaz, did her MBA in 1976, immediately thereafter joining Citibank as Financial Assistant. Ms Mumtaz has done a number of courses in the Citibank Training Centre in Athens, Greece, becoming Manager Credit Administration before rising to be Financial Controller for Pakistan in 1988. In January 1988 she joined Pakistan Banking Council (PBC) as Vice President, looking after the evaluation of the performance of the 5 nationalised commercial banks (NCBs) before being sent on deputation to FWB in 1990 and becoming Senior Vice President in 1991.

FWB’s banking initiatives are well served by the Legal Advisor, Ms Charmaine Hidayatullah, incidentally Grand-daughter of both Sir Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah and Late Haji Abdullah Haroon, two leading luminaries of Sindh (and Pakistan). Having done LLB from SM Law College in 1980, she completed her LLM (Masters) from University of Karachi, specialising in company and labour laws. Joining the Sindh Bar Council in 1981 and the Sindh High Court in 1983, she served as Legal Advisor to various foreign companies before joining FWB in 1989 as a Federal Nominee Director. Presently she is Senior Vice President and Chief of Legal Division FWB. She is a well-known activist for human rights, being associated with a number of NGOs fighting drug abuse and crimes against women.

One of the outstanding senior executives of FWB is Ms Tahira Mujeeb, presently Sector Executive North based in Islamabad with responsibility for 9 branches extending from Jhelum to Peshawar. This graduate of Peshawar University, who suffered a severe personal tragedy recently when her husband was kidnapped and killed in Karachi, joined MCB in 1974, doing her Diploma in Banking (specialising in Law) in 1980. In 1989, she joined FWB as one of its pioneers, becoming Chief of Advances. She became Member of the Executive Committee and Company Secretary in 1990. In 1990, she undertook a study tour of Grameen Bank (GB) in Bangladesh, innovating FWB’s Group Guarantee Scheme on the GB pattern in an adaptation to local conditions. Another of the pioneers of FWB has been Ms Zareen Aziz, who, having done her Masters in Public Administration in 1977 from Punjab University, joined UBL as a Grade 3 officer. Soon after, this dynamic lady took over the Ladies Counter at UBL Liberty Market Branch, becoming the first lady manager for general banking. In December 1989 she established the first FWB Branch in Lahore and in the six years since has overseen the opening up of 10 branches in the Punjab Region, three in 1995 alone. At present she is the Sector Executive for FWB’s Punjab Region, looking after the 10 branches in her Sector. In 1994 she got the Best Performance Award as Manager. Another senior executive with rich experience is Ms Safia Hassan who joined the private sector in 1979 after completing her MA Economics from Karachi University and Computer Software courses at the University of Sheffield UK and Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad. Joining National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) as a System Analyst in officer Grade I in 1985, Ms Safia Hassan was promoted to Assistant Vice President in 1989, thereafter sent on deputation to FWB. She has been serving as Member Executive and Credit Committees since FWB’s inception. Presently she is also Area Executive & GM, being responsible for 6 branches in Sindh (including Karachi). Ms Safia Hassan has overseen the rapid computerisation of FWB, to fully 90% of the banking process.

The closest comparison to FWB is the much older Grameen Bank in Bangladesh with an international recognition for encouraging the under-privileged and poverty-stricken, particularly women in the rural areas, supporting enterprise in small businesses. Primarily meant to provide women the financial means in striving for a regular income, low-cost small loans in Bangladesh have guaranteed tremendous entrepreneurship at the basic threshold of business e.g. cows giving milk, sewing machines making garments, etc. The return of loan has been outstanding, giving truth to the income generation claim that women are better money managers than men. The result can be seen in the villages in Bangladesh, once considered forlorn, no-hope territory. In Pakistan, FWB’s model has been more conservative with respect to banking practices but more consistent with respect to credit disbursement and recovery. As the results have shown, FWB has also not lacked behind its primary role in the economic emancipation of women, in fact on an institutional basis it is far ahead of Grameen Bank despite the lack of world recognition on the same scale, this modesty is in keeping with its conservative approach to image building fostered by the low-key Ms Akram Khatoon. Unlike Grameen Bank FWB has not depended upon various financial institutions for soft credit but has mobilised deposits on its own initiative and reputation. Certainly it is a more organised corporate entity when compared to the Grameen Bank. While the focus remains in urban areas, there now seems to be a system change where FWB will target millions of women in the rural areas whose contribution is presently limited as an adjunct to the rural labour work force. This can only be achieved if FWB actively seeks name recognition to match its effectiveness. Mobilising our women human resource would be a great force multiplier to the economy, FWB has all the ingredients necessary to lead this drive. It has a tremendous organisation base to sponsor rural women entrepreneurship on a massive scale. As perhaps the only commercial bank in the world manned almost totally by women and dedicated to uplifting of women’s lot in our restricted society, FWB has opened up new venues for women’s economic emancipation. There is a can-do attitude that is exemplary for other financial institutions, decision-making is swift and sure. FWB provides a basic security that the women of Pakistan can bank upon. In fact, that may be its basic slogan. That in essence is the FWB story, one of excellence, tempered by the dedicated hard work of a simple, but dynamic team of women banking professionals with honesty and integrity as its basic core.

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