
Analysis of Financial Sustainability and Outreach: A Case Study of PPAF
This paper examines financial sustainability and outreach of Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) over a period of ten year, from 2007 to 2016. Secondary data is used to calculate various financial ratios of sustainability and outreach. Analysis is performed from the viewpoint of two approaches of microfinance, that is Institutionalists’ Approach and Welfarists’ Approach. Ten indicators are used, including Number of Partner Organizations (PO) and Number of Districts (NOD) as measures of outreach whereas, Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), Profit Margin Ratio (PMR), Operational Self Sufficiency (OSS), Debt to Equity Ratio (DER), Financial Expense Ratio (FER), Operating Expense Ratio (OER) and Total Expense Ratio (TER) as measures of financial sustainability of PPAF. Findings of this study show that PPAF is financially sustainable with positive PMR 59%, ROE 20% and ROA 6%. PPAF has a high level of outreach showing that it has a significant impact on poverty alleviation in Pakistan. It is recommended that more government and international donors funding should be injected in PPAF to support the cause of poverty alleviation in Pakistan.