LAHORE (April 27): A student of the Punjab University has won a gold medal along with a cash prize of Rs 110,000 and an appreciation certificate after securing first position in the Institute of Bankers’ Pakistan (IBP) Research Papers Competition.

IBP Chairman Dr Shamshad Akhtar, who is also governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, awarded the medal and cash prize to PU Institute of Business Administration’s (MBA Evening Class, Roll Number 03) student Dr Gohar Sattar. The topic of his research paper was “Challenges and Opportunities in Microfinance”. Gohar has dedicated this accolade to his educational institution PU IBA and expressed his resolve to uphold this standard of performance in future as well.

Vice-Chancellor Dr Mujahid Kamran has termed this achievement as “excellent” and said that PU has won many national and international awards during the last three months. PU students won four Diplomacy Awards at UN model conference in Germany and Netherlands, All Pakistan English-Urdu declamation trophy at Fatima Jinnah Women University. IBA Director Prof Azhar Ikram has extended special congratulations to PU and Dr Gohar for this achievement, and said it is a great honour and pride for IBA that its student has won this distinction. He said IBA administration is working hard to raise the institution image further.

Former IBA Director Prof Dr Muhammad Ehsan Malik has said it is a great honour for PU and IBA and Dr Gohar deserves appreciation. He has sent a special note to PU VC in this regard. It is mention worthy that the research paper has also been published in the IBP research journal with a clear mention that the paper has won first prize in the form of a gold medal cash prize. In his research paper Dr Gohar has thoroughly discussed the Challenges and Opportunities in Microfinance in Pakistan. He took a start from the evolution of micro finance in the country and then presented various models with reference to boom in the banking sector in Pakistan. He writes that “Almost 25% of 160 million Pakistani people live below the poverty line. The 1990s saw a substantial increase in poverty with 80% of the then 97 million in rural population living with less than US$1 income per day ……in rural areas access to financial services (especially micro credits) is needed for agriculture, livestock and non-farm activities. However, in Urban areas of Pakistan the Micro Finance clients are mostly small traders, cottage industry workers, vendors and other low wage earners.

While concluding his paper, Gohar suggests micro finance institutions must be institutionalized and adopt a holistic approach to financial service delivery. He has also urged further research on the issue to for understanding positive and negative externalities and the broader social and economic impact of micro finance.