ISLAMABAD, March 31: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said the government is planning to expand microfinance coverage to three million households by 2010 from the present one million as part of the poverty reduction strategy.

"Micro-credit is the best way of reaching out to the marginalised and forgotten and can change destinies of the people of developing and under-developed countries," the prime minister said while talking to Micro Credit Summit Campaign director Sam Daley Harris here on Saturday.

According to an official announcement, the prime minister said that as part of the lasting and sustainable poverty reduction strategy, the government was focusing on income-generating avenues for the poor and disenfranchised, especially women.

Mr Aziz said the government had adopted a holistic strategy for the spread of micro-credit. “The government is promoting the public-private partnership and encouraging civil society organisations and enterprising philanthropists to come forward and involve themselves in organising microfinance credits to the less privileged sections of society.”

The prime minister said banks and entrepreneurs should also set up microfinance institutions. He said microfinance was poised for growth as the regulatory environment for microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the country offered all major features of an enabling policy environment for MFIs.

This included sustained commitment and substantial investment by the government to help develop the sector and a responsive regulatory framework and an apex institution to extend on-lending and institutional building funds to NGOs and MFIs, he said, adding that there was a growing trust between policymakers and practitioners to work jointly to develop this sector.

Mr Harris said Pakistan was effectively using microfinance for income generation and employment creation opportunities for the deprived sections of society.