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This paper aims to attempt to offer a viable alternative model of source of financing which is known as integrated cash waqf micro enterprises investment (ICWME-I) model for micro enterprises in Malaysia.

The literature on the issues of accessing to finance faced by micro enterprises and cash waqf are reviewed critically and used in the attempt of proposing an alternative model.

The paper has developed ICWME-I model as a source of financing for micro enterprises. This model is expected to provide financial services by using cash waqf fund and involved the participatory contract between non-profit organization and micro enterprises. In addition, with the proposed model, there will be no collateral requirement, interest rate and other stringent requirements which usually imposed by existing conventional financial institutions.

The paper is based on conceptual explorations of literature in the area of micro enterprises and cash waqf. This is a conceptual paper, so it did not use any empirical analysis.

The findings of this paper will provide micro enterprises with an alternative source of financing to start-up or expand their business by using cash waqf fund. The present study also has implications for government and policy makers. With the involvement of non-profit organization that is proposed in this model, it helps the government to reduce its expenses for the development of micro enterprises.

This paper offers an additional literature on cash waqf especially from the Malaysian context. Furthermore, this paper adds to the literature on waqf and cash waqf. The paper proposes a viable alternative model for micro enterprises as a source of financing by using cash waqf fund. This model incorporates Musharakah Mutanaqisah (diminishing partnership) as a financial arrangement between non-profit organization and micro enterprises.

The purpose of this paper aims to investigate micro enterprises financing in Indonesia and examines how this financing differs, depending on the enterprise’s development stage. This research also identifies some structural problems related to micro-financing and provides workable solutions.

This research uses the entrepreneurial network model of Schutjens and Stam (2003) to examine how Indonesian micro and small enterprises (MSEs) evolve even before they become regular small businesses. Content analysis is used on 10 micro-enterprises from Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia and its surroundings. Financing issues at each stage of enterprise development are identified and deeply examined.

This research not only confirms the significant financing problems micro-enterprises face but also clarifies that these problems are unique to each stage of the MSEs’ development. One insight is that most micro-enterprises do not use funding from formal institutions. That is, business owners rely more on funding from non-formal institutions. This is because these enterprises’ managers generally cannot prepare loans application and/or they are lack of knowledge/training on financing matters. They hesitate to borrow from formal financial institutions, as the rates are high but the processing time is longer than those of the loan sharks.

This research contributes to the field of entrepreneurial finance by identifying the structural problems inherent in micro-finance and providing workable solutions for overcoming these problems.

This paper aims to explore the opinions and recommendations of various experts on the integrated cash waqf micro enterprise investment (ICWME-I) model, particularly in terms of its suitability, applicability and prospects in the market.

The research involves primary data which are collected from semi-structured interviews conducted with experts from various backgrounds. Thematic analysis was used to examine the data.

The experts support the suitability of the ICWME-I model in providing financial services to micro enterprises. They highlight the importance of establishing, managing and operating ICWME-I model under the aegis of the State Islamic Religious Council in Malaysia or the corporate sector. They further emphasize that the characteristics of micro enterprises, the element of sustainable funding, the importance of proper management and administration, legal matters and public awareness are key factors that influence the sustainability of the ICWME-I model.

This paper adds to the literature on waqf and micro enterprises especially from the Malaysian context. The paper validates the ICWME-I model in terms of its suitability, applicability and prospects in the market by interviewing experts from various backgrounds.

This paper aims to investigate the role of demographics and sector type in determining consumer preferences of Islamic micro-credit products, namely, Musharka and Murabha, versus conventional micro-credit financing in Egypt.

This research is a quantitative study that uses surveys on 1,125 current micro-credit consumers in Cairo and Upper Egypt using multi-staged cluster sampling technique. Descriptive and inferential analyses were used to explain results.

The study revealed the potential of Musharka mode of financing among micro-credit borrowers in Egypt, specifically in the manufacturing sector, followed by the trade sector. Although previous researches showed correlations between income, age and other demographic factors with consumer financing choices, the current research indicated no significance for consumer demographics in determining preferences of Islamic micro-credit contracts in Egypt. However, the sector type showed high potential in determining consumer choices of Islamic micro-credit contracts.

This paper advances knowledge in the domain of consumer behavior, specifically in bottom of the pyramid and subsistence markets that are under researched.

The results highlighted are important for micro-finance institutions, NGOs and policy makers, as they delve deeper into the consumer preferences for Islamic financial products and attempt to present innovative solutions toward poverty eradication.

This research is one of the few attempts to study and explain consumer preferences toward Islamic micro-credit products in Egypt, and the role of sectors in determining consumer choices for specific Islamic micro-credit contracts.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of access to credit through micro‐credit institutions on entrepreneurial performance and assesses the loan performance of public credit schemes in Nigeria in order to determine the sustainability of such schemes.

The study employed qualitative approach and exploratory perspective, using primary and secondary data obtained at beneficiary and institutional levels.

The loan repayment rates were generally low for many of the schemes, and this confirms the problems of public sector lending, with implications for the sustainability of the schemes. Many reasons were given for the low repayment rates, among which were poor credit culture of the schemes managed by public sector and the attitudinal nature of Nigerians towards public funds.

There is a need for policy makers, researchers and entrepreneurs to improve on the designing of micro‐credit schemes in order to be sustainable.

This paper makes a first step towards comparing the performance of public and private micro‐credit schemes in Nigeria.

The purpose of this paper is to assess readiness of Iranian micro‐finance institutes (MFIs) to perform micro‐insurance activities.

A five‐variable model was used. Each variable was assessed using a special dimension of readiness. Row data were gathered through a closed interview containing 34 questions using the Likert scale. Interviewees included 30 experts working as top managers in 15 selected Iranian MFIs (consisting of banks, finance and credit institutes and Qarzol‐hasane).

The score for general readiness of MFIs in Iran revealed a remarkable figure. Accordingly, it is suggested that these institutes should enter this business field incrementally and invest in this particular domain.

The sample was not truly random, as the professionals in this field are not easily accessible. The factors that were used for the study were based on a review of past researches and the factors were chosen after deliberation and reliability tests. However, this study may not have chosen all possible factors. The research findings are limited to MFIs of Iran. The findings cannot be generalized to other institutions or industries.

The paper reveals the importance of the readiness assessment in successful microinsurance implementation by Islamic MFIs and introduces a basic model for this type of readiness assessment that can be used in other countries.

Micro‐finance institutions are critical to Africa's quest for solutions to the continent's development challenge. The area of their greatest potential impact, rural Africa, is not only home to the bulk of the continent's population, but also the vast majority of Africa's poor. This paper not only defines MFIs with examples from Zambia, South Africa, Mali and Zimbabwe, it also establishes a clear link between MFIs and both poverty eradication and the empowerment and equality of women, two of the major Millennium Development Goals. The paper concludes with some policy recommendations and a set of “best practices” for the future success of MFIs on the continent, including the need to ensure flexibility and careful government regulation and supervision of MFIs.

The purpose of this study was to, using a case study research design informed by organizational economics theory, to examine the prospects for micro-insurance in promoting micro-credit in a low-income Anglophone country in sub-Saharan Africa – The Gambia. Two main research questions are addressed: first, what is the most appropriate micro-finance institution (MFI) organizational structure to maximize the economic benefits of micro-insurance? Second, what are the financial management and wider economic benefits of the use of micro-insurance by MFIs?

To address our two research questions, we used a semi-structured interview protocol, informed by the organizational economics literature, to interpret the data collected from our field cases. We believe that these intrinsic qualities of case study methodology are particularly apt in the present study, given the complex and emergent nature of micro-finance and micro-insurance in low-income countries such The Gambia. By focusing on case studies in a single country, we also to some extent help control for variations in business environment that could confound interpretations of field data obtained from different jurisdictions.

The results of our study suggest that the mutual (cooperative) structure of credit unions is likely to be the most cost-efficient and effective organizational form for reducing information asymmetries, agency problems and transaction costs. We also observe that micro-insurance can help reduce the risk of loan defaults, thereby increasing returns on savings and lowering the costs of debt. As such, micro-insurance stimulates the demand–supply of financial intermediation in less developed countries and so helps promote economic development. In addition to contributing new insights, our findings have potentially important commercial and public policy implications.

We acknowledge that our research is subject to inherent limitations such as the focus on three interviews in three different types of MFI organization while excluding other structural forms of organization such as government-owned/sponsored organizations. Nonetheless, the organizational characteristics of the cases examined in the present study are representative of most MFIs in developing countries. Given the prevalent hierarchical nature of corporate systems in sub-Saharan Africa, the views of the interviewees are also deemed to reflect those of other board members. Nonetheless, we acknowledge that the conclusions from our research may need to be tempered in line with these inherent limitations with the research approach adopted.

The insights obtained from our Gambia-based research could be generalized to developing countries elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, and indeed, other parts of the developing world. Consequently, the study could be of interest and relevance to international financiers (e.g. the World Bank), aid agencies, governments and other development organizations.

Despite its evident business and development potential, academic management research on micro-insurance, and in particular, its role in supporting micro-finance initiatives, is still very much at an embryonic stage. Our study thus seeks to fill this knowledge gap.

Housing micro‐finance is emerging globally as an important financial activity to help alleviate the housing needs of economically vulnerable people. Micro‐finance institutions (MFIs) planning to include housing product must carefully assess whether they have the management and technical capacity to do so. The purpose of this paper is to give practical guidance to MFIs in adopting the housing programme, in addition to their existing line of micro‐finance services.

The paper gives practical guidance to MFIs adopting the housing programme in addition to the existing line of micro‐finance services and inputs about any market study, profiling the customers, product design, pricing of the product, affordability of the clients, income assessment, loan assessment, operational procedures, risk coping mechanisms and technical backup guidance.

The paper finds that MFIs should also ensure that housing micro‐finance suits their strategy from institutional and financial perspectives.

This paper provides valuable practical guidance to MFIs.

Despite the fact that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a crucial role in strengthening the financial sector within developing and emerging economies through providing employment opportunities to the rural and urban population, capacity building in the form of skills training and economic empowerment, they still face a plethora of challenges that continue to threaten their existence, performance and growth. Access to operational and administrative funds needed to execute their activities effectively is a significant challenge and detrimental to the growth of SMEs in Uganda. Conversely, Islamic microfinance has been noted as a panacea to the challenges of financial inaccessibility among SMEs, especially in developing countries. The purpose of this paper is therefore to investigate how the adoption of Islamic microfinance can play a fundamental role in enhancing the sustainability of microfinance institutions (MFIs) while meeting the financing challenges of SMEs in Uganda.

In this study, a review of existing literature was carried out to critically examine relevant information (literature sources) and empirical studies on SMEs, their performance and challenges. The study being conceptual tries to understand how Islamic microfinance could be adopted as an alternative scheme of financing to bridge the gap and mitigate the financial challenges facing SMEs.

The study finds that the existing MFIs have failed to achieve their objectives of providing financial services to the poor and SMEs while remaining sustainable. This has left the majority of SMEs within Uganda's informal sector financially handicapped, thus leading to their failure in meeting their expectations and eventually collapsing even before celebrating their third or fourth birthdays. However, the enactment into law of the Financial Institutions Amendment Act 2016 that paved the way for the introduction of Islamic finance in Uganda, and the Tier 4 Microfinance Institutions and Money Lenders' Act, 2016 that incorporated the aspects of Islamic microfinance within the existing microfinance framework as seen and is perceived as a key factor in addressing the financial challenges faced by MFIs and the SMEs if fully adopted.

This study is conceptual with no empirical investigation and discussion of key theories. On the contrary, it will be imperative and useful when carrying out more extensive hypothetical studies by future researchers, specifically in the area of Islamic microfinance that is relatively new in Uganda.

Practically, this paper will serve as a guide to policymakers and practitioners in the field of microfinance by adding a flair that could enable in bridging the challenges associated with inadequate financing of SMEs in Uganda.

Socially, the social aspects of charity (Zakah and Sadaqah) will help to improve the livelihood of the poorest of the poor who cannot engage in active business through meeting their basic needs of life without begging thereby preventing them from being social outcasts.

The study establishes Islamic microfinance (IMF) as a promising and unexplored viable option potentially needed in intensifying the financing needs of SMEs in Uganda. The paper provides an entirely new dimension in nature and way microfinance products should be structured with a view of ensuring that there is sustainable provision of financial services to SMEs. The paper adds real value to the existing conventional microfinance products and services in Uganda, given the ethical and moral attributes of Islamic microfinancing practices that are assumed to efficiently and effectively motivate SME owners and other small entrepreneurs to thrive.