ABSTRACT
With the potential of microfinance to reach out to a plethora of low-income societal groups, and provide them with financial access, and the vision of Islamic economics which is to restructure society on the basis of socio-economic justice and equality, it is astonishing to note that there are still three billion people in the world who do not have access to basic financial services. Despite the willingness of the poor populations of most economies to start up their own projects, they lack the necessary means to finance these projects. Is the union of microfinance and Islamic finance a solution to this unsatisfied demand? Is Islamic microfinance a sustainable solution to the problems currently facing the microfinance sector? Is Islamic microfinance the new poverty-alleviation accelerator that the world needs?
