Ariana Financial Services (AFS) began operations as a program of Mercy Corps (MC) in May 2003 with an initial grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Early operations were focused exclusively on women in District 7 of Kabul city, the area hardest hit by fighting during the war.
AFS currently operates in Kabul and Nangrahar Provinces through a network of 4 branches and 2 sub-offices. With the funds now requested, AFS operations in Afghanistan will be expanded to include Laghman, Baghlan and Herat provinces.
Since its inception in May 2003, AFS has disbursed 36,582 loans for a total of AFN 539 mln ($10.7mln). Although starting as a lender largely to women, today AFS offers group solidarity and individual loan products to both female (72%) and male (28%) clients throughout the 18 Districts of Kabul City. AFS also provides agricultural loans from a new branch in Nangrahar province opened in June 2007. By the end of Sep 2008 AFS had 11,450 active clients with an outstanding portfolio of AFN 170,429,857 (US$3.4 million) and PAR>30 days of 2 %. The percentage of female clients has declined from 80% in 2005 because of the introduction of an individual loan product, attracting more men clients with registered businesses. As of Sep 2008, the loan portfolio composition by client business is 35% commercial retail, 37% services, 20% manufacturing and handicrafts and 8% agriculture.