Amman, Jordan – 06.09.2012. The Islamic Development Bank and the German Agency for International Cooperation/GIZ (on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation) collaborated to organize a regional Islamic Microfinance Awareness Symposium on 4th and 5th of September 2012 at the Dead Sea Resort in Jordan.
The two-day Symposium was mainly held to share experiences from Islamic financing business models as well as Islamic microfinancing and how it could offer solutions to the deprived people to access and benefit from Islamic microfinancing principles. Recently, the IDB has been cooperating with the German Agency to promote Islamic microfinancing in North Africa and the Middle East.
The Symposium aimed at fostering shared development goals in the fields of economic and social development and employment creation, especially for young men and women in the Arab world. The event which was jointly inaugurated by Dr. Azmi Omar, Director General, Islamic Research and Training Institute of the IDB, Mrs. Mary Schaefer, GIZ Director General (Mediterranean Region, Europe, and Central Asian countries) and Dr. Ines Gessner, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Germany in Amman was
attended by donors, officials from the central banks, social funds, and major microfinancing institutions in the region.
In recent years, Islamic microfinancing has become an increasingly popular tool to alleviate poverty and improve livelihoods for low-income communities, including in North Africa and the Middle East.