InfraZamin Pakistan is an innovative, for-profit credit enhancement guarantee company, conceived and designed to issue guarantees for promoting private infrastructure projects. InfraZamin leverages the prior experience of InfraCo Asia and GuarantCo in supporting infrastructure projects in Pakistan, as well as Karandaaz’s local market knowledge and track record of investments focused on supporting financial inclusion.
InfraZamin aims to become a catalyst for greater private sector participation in long term local currency financing of infrastructure in Pakistan, thereby assisting with social and economic development objectives.
To address market failures in financing of credit worthy infrastructure projects via credit enhancement of local currency debt instruments in Pakistan.
The Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) is an innovative infrastructure project developer and investor which mobilises private investment in sustainable and inclusive infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa and south and southeast Asia.
PIDG offers technical assistance for upstream, early-stage activities and concessional capital; invests in early-stage project development and project and corporate equity through its project development solution, InfraCo; its debt solution EAAIF (the Emerging Africa & Asia Infrastructure Fund) is one of the first and more successful blended debt funds in low-income markets; and its guarantees solution, GuarantCo, provides credit enhancement and local currency solutions to de-risk projects. PIDG also supports a growing portfolio of local credit enhancement facilities, which unlock domestic institutional capital for infrastructure financing. For more information, visit www.pidg.org.
Impact:
InfraCo Asia’s portfolio spans 12 countries in South and Southeast Asia. InfraCo Asia provides early-stage development capital and expertise to catalyse sustainable infrastructure projects in the region’s emerging and frontier markets.
Impact
* Based on projects in operation and under construction
https://infracoasia.com/
KARANDAAZ PAKISTAN is a not-for-profit special purpose vehicle set up under Section 42 in August 2014. Karandaaz is the implementation partner of the Enterprise and Asset Growth Programme (EAGR) of the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). Karandaaz promotes access to finance for micro, small and medium-sized businesses through a double bottom line investment platform and financial inclusion for individuals by employing technology-enabled solutions.
Impact
*Includes Karandaaz share in both debt and equity instruments
* * Includes 824,000 micro-enterprises and 820,000 jobs supported through Pakistan Microfinance Investment Company (PMIC)
* * * Includes growth capital, COVID support, and business development support provided through technical assistance
https://karandaaz.com.pk/
GuarantCo has a portfolio consisting of 19 countries and two multi-country projects in Africa and Asia. GuarantCo was established in 2005 to mobilise local currency credit solutions for infrastructure projects and to support the development of capital markets in lower income countries.
Impact
Maheen has over twenty years of experience in investment banking, research and asset management. Currently she serves as the Chief Executive Officer of InfraZamin Pakistan, a Private Infrastructure Development Group (UK) company, and has played a crucial part in setting up operations and developing a project pipeline. InfraZamin’s credit guarantees assist in de-risking projects and transactions to enable access to finance to underserved sectors and companies. Under her stewardship InfraZamin has developed and executed a number of award-winning transactions that have achieved local and global repute.
In her previous appointment, Maheen Rahman served as the Chief Executive of Alfalah GHP Investment Management where, under her leadership, Alfalah Investments has grown to be one of the largest asset management companies in Pakistan. Prior to that, Ms Rahman was the Chief Executive of IGI Funds, Head of Research at BMA Capital Management, Corporate Finance Associate at ABN AMRO Bank and Investment Banking analyst at Merrill Lynch. She has the experience of working across multiple geographies during her career.
Maheen has been featured on Fortune’s “40 Under 40’s women to watch” list, in 2015. She also serves on a number of boards with notable directorships at the Securities and Exchange Policy Board, Independent Director at GlaxoSmithKlein Pakistan, Independent Director at Khaadi, Independent Director at Centre for Economic Research in Pakistan and Independent Director at Systems Limited. She is also the former Director of Special Technology Zones Authority, former Director at Nasra Public Schools, Advisor to KatalystLabs, former Chairperson and Director of the Mutual Funds Association of Pakistan, former Director Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance and former Member of the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Restructuring of Evacuee Property Trust Board.
In addition to her extensive work experience and professional achievements, Maheen holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons) degree in Economics from the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and a Master of Science in Finance and Economics from Warwick Business School in the UK. She also has several capital markets certifications including Series 7 from the New York Stock Exchange and is a certified independent director from the Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Khusro Mumtaz is the Chief Risk Officer (CRO) of InfraZamin Pakistan overseeing IZP’s entire credit and risk management operations, including compliance risk. He is responsible for managing, identifying, evaluating and reporting all internal and external risks.
Khusro Mumtaz brings with him almost three decades of banking experience primarily in Credit Risk / Risk Management/Corporate Banking with diverse geographical experience. Prior to InfraZamin, he has served as Chief Risk Officer – JS Bank Ltd., Chief Risk Officer – NIB Bank, Pakistan (a Temasek Holdings group entity) and Chief Risk Officer – Standard Chartered Bank, Bahrain where he was responsible for the enterprise wide risk management of each of these entities. He has extensive experience in Corporate/ Commercial and SME lending, structured financing and portfolio management, policy and product development, setting underwriting standards and risk assessment criteria, and developing/automating loan origination systems and risk rating and pricing models. He started his career with American Express Bank and has also worked for Banque Saudi Fransi, MashreqBank and MCB Bank. Apart from Pakistan he has worked in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Khusro holds a master’s in Business Administration from Rice University, USA
Amir has over twenty five years of experience in Corporate, Investment, Commercial and Financial Institutions. He serves as the Chief Investment Officer effective July’2025 and leading the company’s strategy for identifying, structuring, and executing credit enhancement transactions. Prior to joining Infrazamin he served as Director & Country Head for Citibank Pakistan looking after Multinational Corporates Business (Global Network Banking). He has also served as board of governor on National Management Foundation that primarily raised funds for Lahore University of Management Sciences for their operations and infrastructure requirement.
Mr. Muhammad Anas is an Associate member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). He worked in the leading financial institutions where he was involved in the areas of core finance and internal control. He is a Certified Director of Corporate Governance from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP). Before joining InfraZamin, he served as the Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary at Cyan Limited and Pebbles (Private) Limited, a Dawood Group Companies.
Nidal Ahmed Shaikh leads the business origination and execution function at InfraZamin Pakistan, bringing over 12 years of specialized experience in investment banking and structured finance. As one of the most experienced practitioners in Pakistan’s credit guarantee landscape, Nidal’s involvement with guarantee-backed transactions dates back to 2013. He was instrumental in executing landmark GuarantCo-backed transactions, including PMCL (Jazz), BYCO, and Shams Power, long before the establishment of local facilities. This deep, decade-long track record makes him uniquely qualified in structuring complex credit enhancement solutions for the local market.
Nidal also holds the distinction of being a core member of the advisory team responsible for InfraZamin’s incorporation. He played a pivotal role in the entity’s setup, leading the pre-feasibility study, raising initial equity capital, and successfully securing regulatory licenses from the SECP and SBP. His strategic groundwork was essential in InfraZamin obtaining its inaugural AAA credit rating from PACRA.
Prior to his current role, Nidal served as the Head of Investment Banking & Advisory Services at Pak Brunei Investment Company, where he managed the DFI’s entire investment portfolio and served on the Management, Credit, and Risk Committees. He currently sits on the Board of Union Microfinance as an Independent Director and Chairman of the Board Credit Committee. Nidal is an ACCA-qualified professional and holds certifications in Sustainable Development Law from the University of Cambridge.
Asad joined InfraZamin Pakistan in December 2021 as Head of Human Resources. Prior to joining InfraZamin, Asad was leading the HR and Administration functions at REDtone Group where he was tasked with developing the HR framework for all group companies.
He has over 13 years of diverse experience in the financial, telecommunication and IT, BPO, food and beverage and logistics industries and has gained experience in the areas of talent management, organizational development, employee relations, rewards management, learning and development, HRIS and HR statutory compliance. Over the span of his career, he has led several talent and change centric initiatives by developing and implementing initiatives based on best HR practices targeting sustainable business outcomes. Asad has also been part of many start-up initiatives throughout his career where he has developed and executed the HR strategy.
He holds an MBA in Human Resource Management.
Marium Soomro has over two decades of work experience in the financial sector. Presently, she is Development Impact and HSES specialist at InfraZamin. In her role at Infrazamin she oversees the early-stage impact assessment of all investments, the process for monitoring and evaluating their impact and programmatic work to deepen sustainable development impact spanning gender and climate. Alongside the Developmental Impact work, she provides the requisite HSES support across the Infrazamin client portfolio to implement our strategy.
Prior to this she was the Director Programmes, Global Impact at Standard Chartered Bank UK Head office and had oversight of a portfolio of 24 markets globally and a proprietary young girl’s life-skills programme called Goal. She has held roles heading communications, cards and sustainability in a market capacity with leading banks in Pakistan such as UBL and MCB. Her unique experience of commercial banking and hands on Impact work with women and young girls around the world lends a global understanding of key gender issues in a business context. She also served as the secretary to the Standard Chartered Foundation, contributing to a strong expertise in corporate and non profit oversight and governance.
Marium has a diverse career path that spans non-profits, consumer pharma, finance and most recently global impact and sustainable development. She holds a Level 1, European Masters in Sustainable development from the University of Torino, Italy in addition to an MBA and BSc Hons. She is an International Coaching Federation trained ACC coach and NLP Practitioner. In addition to this she is also a certified independent director from the Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance
Waheed Khatri has joined us as VP and Head of Marketing and Corporate Communications. Waheed has twelve years of marketing experience in Pakistan. His previous role was as Marketing and Digital Head at Alfalah Investments where he spent three years developing the corporate communications department and enhancing the company’s brand and outreach programs. He has also worked at various digital and branding agencies such as Orange Room, Numberz Digital and MyGerry’s. He expertise lies in developing effective social media platforms, brand management, client and product outreach as well as campaign programs for awareness and capacity building.
Hirah Siddiqui is a legal professional with expertise in corporate governance, regulatory compliance, and dispute resolution. She currently serves as the Assistant Manager Legal & Corporate Affairs at InfraZamin Pakistan Limited, where she oversees legal and corporate matters.
She holds a degree from the University of London and is a Certified Civil and Commercial Mediator. Currently pursuing a Bar at Law from BPP University, UK, Hirah continues to expand her legal expertise, focusing on corporate law, mediation, and regulatory frameworks.
Aamra Islam joined InfraZamin in May 2021 as Manager Administration. In this role, she is looking after the administrative functions of the organization.
Ms Islam has ten years of experience in executive secretarial and administration. Prior to joining InfraZamin Pakistan she has served in various reputable organizations in her capacity as executive secretary and administration assistant namely Alfalah GHP Investment, R&I Electrical Appliances (Kenwood & Homage), Siemens Pakistan and Server4Sale.
During her time with Kenwood, she was recognized for her contribution in aspecial assignment as Civil engineering work Coordinator for the newly developed factory at Port Qasim, in addition to her regular responsibility as Secretary to CEO.
Ms Islam Holds an MBA degree in Human Resources from PAF KIET.
Boo Hock has helmed various portfolios in the financial sector, in a career that spans almost 30 years in rating corporate, project, securitization and structured finance bonds, as well as project finance consultancy and private equity.
Prior to advising on the establishment of InfraZamin Pakistan, Boo Hock was Deputy CEO of Danajamin – Malaysia’s first financial guarantor, for which he led the conceptualisation and establishment. Boo Hock also started up the Credit Guarantee and Investment Facility (CGIF) – the guarantee trust fund of the Asian Development Bank . As Vice-President, he built CGIF’s profile, team and zero-claim guarantee portfolio of USD1.6 billion equivalent across the ASEAN region. At CGIF, Boo Hock led the development of new guarantee structures and achieved numerous milestones for Southeast Asian local currency bond markets, including the signing of ASEAN’s first local currency bond reinsurance treaty.
He holds a BSc from Mount Union College and an MBA from Ohio University.
Navid Goraya brings with himself over 25 years of global experience in investment banking. Before joining Karandaaz as the CIO, he was leading a Strategic Advisory Firm, White Oak Advisors Inc, in New York providing cross-border advice to financial institutions. Earlier, at HSBC USA, Navid advised approx. USD 6 billion in specialized investment funds of HSBC and led a global wealth team covering North America, the GCC, and South East Asia. He has also led Investment Banking teams at IICG Bahrain, Qatar National Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland.
Navid has an MBA from IBA, University of Karachi). He serves as a nominee director on several investee companies of Karandaaz.
Phillip Skinner is the Managing Director of the Global Execution Team at GuarantCo. Since joining GuarantCo in 2016, Phil has worked on a number of infrastructure projects in Africa and Asia with a special geographic focus on Pakistan. Today he leads the team at GuarantCo responsible for due diligence, detailed structuring, credit approvals and documentation for over $250m of guarantee transactions per annum.
Prior to joining GuarantCo, Phil worked for the UK Green Investment Bank where he worked on a number of renewable energy transactions in the UK before joining the start-up team to establish UK Climate Investments LLP, a specialist fund targeting transformational green energy investments in some of the world’s most carbon intensive economies. Phil started his finance career at DNB Bank where he specialised in power and renewable energy transactions.
Phil holds a MSc in Development Economics from Oxford University.
Claudine Lim joined Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) in 2009 to establish and grow InfraCo Asia, PIDG’s project development solution in Asia, where she served as COO and later Executive Director until 2024. Representing InfraCo Asia as the lead shareholder, Claudine played an instrumental role in the development and establishment of InfraZamin.
Prior to her years at PIDG, Claudine was responsible for investor relations at Temasek Holdings, a Singapore government-owned investment holding company. Her previous roles include strategic planning, business development and investor relations in the telecommunications sector in Singapore and Hong Kong. Claudine started her career with the Singapore Civil Service, holding appointments with the Ministry of Trade & Industry, Ministry of Defence and Ministry of National Development.
She has a BA (Hons) degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford and an MSc in Finance and Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Tayyeb Afzal is an accomplished C-level executive with extensive experience spanning over 45 years across various sectors in geographies. His expertise lies in financial services, manufacturing, and professional services, particularly in the areas of risk governance, leadership, financial management, and strategic planning.
As the first corporate leader in Pakistan to achieve certification in Risk Governance® from the DCRO Institute, Tayyeb has demonstrated a strong commitment to best practices in corporate governance and risk management. His expertise extends to serving as an independent director, business advisor, and mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, reflecting his dedication to nurturing talent and fostering growth in the business community.
With a reputation for board-level excellence, Tayyeb is widely recognized for his impactful contributions to leading public and private companies in Pakistan. His leadership of audit committees, proficiency in financial optimization, and strategic guidance on initiatives such as IPO planning, M&A, and due diligence underscore his strategic vision and operational acumen.
Having worked in diverse international markets such as the U.K., Canada, and various Middle Eastern countries, Tayyeb brings a global perspective to his roles, leveraging his deep understanding of different cultural contexts and business environments. His experience in external and internal auditing, corporate banking, and equipment leasing further enhances his ability to add value across a spectrum of industries and functional domains.
Tayyeb’s professional credentials as a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales (ICAEW) and a Fellow of The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) of the UK attest to his technical proficiency and commitment to upholding the highest standards of ethical conduct and professional excellence.
In summary, Tayyeb Afzal stands out as a dynamic and visionary leader with a proven track record of driving business success through strategic foresight, analytical thinking, and a deep-seated commitment to fostering organizational growth and innovation. His blend of global experience, industry expertise, and leadership capabilities positions him as a valuable asset to any organization seeking to navigate complex challenges and capitalize on emerging opportunities in today’s dynamic business landscape.
Mr Muneer Kamal has over four decades of experience in the banking and financial sector. He started his career in 1979 at Citibank Pakistan where he served for 15 years in various capacities, including Director and Head of Public Sector & Financial institutions in Pakistan and Director of the Regional Training Centre for Asia Pacific at Citibank Singapore.
Kamal then joined Faysal Bank as the President and CEO where he spearheaded a major growth drive within the bank to increase the branch network and balance sheet size and strength. He then moved on to President and CEO of Union Bank in Pakistan and subsequently Vice Chairman and COO of Union Bank International. He was instrumental in various acquisitions done by Union Bank Ltd i.e Bank of America, American Express Cards, Emirates Bank International and Mashreq Bank’s Sri Lanka operations. Union Bank was considered a major success story and its operations were then later acquired by Standard Chartered Ltd to consolidate their position in Pakistan and the region. Kamal moved on post-acquisition to KASB Bank as President and CEO.
Mr Kamal’s diverse Corporate Governance experience includes having previously served as Chairman Pakistan Stock Exchange, Chairman National Bank of Pakistan, Trustee Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital, and Director at Engro Corp, DH Corp and Government Holding Private Ltd.
He currently serves as member Board of Governor, National School of Public Policy (NSPP) and serves on the board of GSK ( Pakistan ) and Karachi Education Initiative . NSPP is the apex body chaired by the President of Pakistan Dr Alvi, responsible for setting standard and content of training given to bureaucracy at various levels.
Maheen Rahman was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of InfraZamin Pakistan in 2020 and has played a crucial part in setting up InfraZamin Pakistan’s base operations and its initial structure. Maheen has over twenty years of experience in investment banking, research and asset management.
In her previous appointment, Maheen Rahman served as the Chief Executive of Alfalah GHP Investment Management where, under her leadership, Alfalah Investments has grown to be one of the largest asset management companies in Pakistan. Prior to that, Ms Rahman was the Chief Executive of IGI Funds, during her tenure, IGI Funds turned into a profitable entity from a loss incurring fund. Her other roles include, Head of Research at BMA Capital Management, Associate at ABN AMRO Bank and investment banking analyst at Merrill Lynch. She has the experience of working across multiple geographies during her career.
Maheen has been featured on Fortune’s “40 Under 40’s women to watch” list, in 2015. She has also represented on multiple forums in Pakistan including Independent Director at GlaxoSmithKlein Pakistan, Director of Special Technology Zones Authority, Pakistan, Director Nasra Public Schools and Advisor to KatalystLabs. She is also the former Chairperson and Director of the Mutual Funds Association of Pakistan, former Director Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance and former Member of the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Restructuring of Evacuee Property Trust Board.
In addition to her extensive work experience and professional achievements, Maheen holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons) degree in Economics from the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and a Master of Science in Finance and Economics from Warwick Business School in the UK.
