Latest News
Lighting the Lives of the Rural Poor
USAID
Bringing light to Haiti, one solar lamp at a time
CBS Evening News
Interview with Niki Armacost of Arc Finance and Dominique Policard of Sogexpress about Arc Finance's Remittances Project in Haiti
NBC Miami & Tropik TV
Where innovation pays off: Helping low-income Haitians access environmentally-friendly energy products
November 2012 FOMIN
Stima Systems' Group Microleasing Model - Promoting
Payment and Reducing Risk at the Group Level
July 2012 Arc Finance Case Study
Arc Finance Podcast: Fiza Farhan, CEO, The Buksh Foundation
July 2012 Arc Finance Podcast
Using Energy Products and Other Initiatives to Spur Growth at a Philippine
MFI
August 2012 Arc Finance Blog
How
Women Are Powering Energy Access in Uganda
June 2012 Arc Finance Blog
Financing Sustainable Enery: An Optimistic View From Niki Armacost
July 11, 2012 Ashden Blog
Climate Scope 2012 Report featuring Arc's Haiti Remittances Project
July 2012 Inter-American Development Bank Report
Can The Microfinance Sector Help Deliver Clean Energy?
May 14, 2012 CGAP Blog
Managing Director and Co-Founder Nicola Armacost on Microfinance
Link TV: Television Without Borders
Saiful Islam
Microfinance Operations Specialist
Saiful is Arc’s Microfinance Operations Specialist, and brings over 20 years of experience in the microfinance industry. Prior to joining Arc, Saiful was at Women’s World Banking (WWB) where he spent over 15 years working closely with some of the largest MFIs in Asia and Africa, providing strategic advice and technical assistance. His prior experience includes several years with the Shakti Foundation, a retail MFI in Bangladesh that he co-founded as well as at UNICEF, Bangladesh where he served as a consultant in the Field Operations section.
Saiful has spent his career supporting MFIs to improve and expand their operations, refining existing products and introduce new ones. Saiful is recognized as an expert on the group lending methodology and has successfully introduced individual lending to traditional group lending MFIs. He has also assisted several MFIs—CARD Bank (Philippines), ADOPEM (Dominican Republic), U-Trust (Uganda), KMB (Pakistan) and KWFT (Kenya)—to introduce voluntary savings. Saiful has authored several publications on savings and portfolio quality management, including a book called Introducing Voluntary Savings – A WWB How-To Guide.
Saiful holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Finance from Dhaka University. He is Bangladeshi-American, is fluent in English and Bangla, understands Hindi and can read Arabic.