Name: Muhammad Zubair
Home Town: Malir Town, Karachi, Pakistan
Profession: Carpenter
Loan: Rs 35,000

MUHAMMAD ZUBAIR renovates old furniture and sells it as new. His profits depend on how ‘new’ he can make an old piece of furniture look. The renovation includes mending and polishing old doors, bed frames, desks and other pieces of household furniture and he usually manages to sell a piece for double the price it cost him.

Zubair has been in this business for the last four years and until he took a loan of RS 35,000 from Tameer, he used to depend on bisees to fund his business. “The loan is much better than the bisee because I don’t have to wait for my turn.” With the loan, Zubair was able to purchase 3 tonnes of used metal doors for a cut price and he hopes to take further loans from Tameer. “The staff here at the bank is excellent; they are polite and very understanding. They are famous in our community,” says Zubair. He lives next to his workshop with his mother and two sisters and is from an Urdu speaking background.