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Muhammadiyah’s women's wing opens micro bank in Yogyakarta
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 Muhammadiyah women's wing Aisyiyah chairman Siti Noordjannah Djohantini (right) and Financial Services Authority (OJK) head Wimboh Santoso pose for a photograph after launching sharia microfinance institution Usaha Mandiri Sakinan in Yogyakarta on Aug. 3 (bbn) (Courtesy of/www.aisyiyah.or.id)
M
uhammadiyah women's wing Aisyiyah has launched sharia microfinance institution (LKMS) Usaha Mandiri Sakinan in Yogyakarta in a bid to provide female micro entrepreneurs in the region with a microcredit facility.
The microcredit bank, popularized as Bank Wakaf Mikro (BWM), is located at Muhammadiyah’s Gedung Dakwah Nogotirto (GDN) building in Gamping district, Sleman regency, and is managed by Yogyakarta Aisyiyah University (Unisa) in cooperation.
“For Aisyiyah, this is the first LKMS ever launched. We are currently preparing the establishment of other LKMSes in other regions,” Aisyiyah chairwoman Siti Noordjannah Djohantini said after the launching ceremony over the weekend.
Unlike other BWM previously launched by the Financial Services Authority (OJK), which are mostly based on Islamic boarding schools (Pesantren), the one in Nogotirto is university-based. The bank's location is close to the Unisa campus.
Siti said Aisyiyah was currently developing eight LKMSes in cooperation with the OJK. Of them three are education institution-based LKMSes including the one in Nogotirto, four are community-based and one is Pesantren based.
The other two are being developed in West Java, four in East Java and Pesantren-based microbanks in Makassar, South Sulawesi.
Meanwhile, OJK head Wimboh Santoso said the OJK had a total of 40 BWMs across the country since October 2017.
“Each is expected to serve 3,000 beneficiaries at the maximum, with loans ranging from Rp 1 million to Rp 3 million per beneficiary,” he said. He said BWM was indeed targeting microentrepreneurs in villages with almost no access to the banking sector. No collateral is needed to become a beneficiary. Each is only required to pay a supervision service of 3 percent a year. (bbn)
