MANILA: Muhammad Amjad Saqib, a Pakistani microfinance pioneer, won a Ramon Magsaysay Award for his lifelong contribution to help low-income families.
Ramon Magsaysay Award, named after a Filipino president killed in a plane crash, has been Asia’s equivalent to the Nobel Prize.
The initiative of Muhammad Amjad Saqib, the Akhuwat Islamic Microfinance (AIM) program, provides free loans to the deprived to create sustainable pathways to get out of poverty. It has been grown into the nation’s largest microfinance institution, distributing the equivalent of $900 million and owning the loan repayment rate to almost 100 per cent.
Prime Minister Imran Khan also congratulated Muhammad Saqib in his tweet and said he was proud of him as he had been given Asia’s highest honour.