Alfie Othman has had a successful banking career of over twelve years in JP Morgan and Citibank managing accounts assets under custody in a variety of countries and across multiple asset classes. At present, he is the ED for Ikhlas Holdings and a partner in a micro/mobile payments start-up.
Alongside his private sector work, Alfie has devoted significant time to the public sector and civil society. Alfie has been an executive member in PERTAPIS, a voluntary welfare organization that has been providing social, educational and welfare services to the local Malay community since the 1970s. In this role, Mr. Othman has overseen welfare and education centres for the marginalised.
Alfie is also recognised as a Social Enterprise practitioner within Singapore. With the aid of the Ministry of Community Services, Youth and Sports (MCYS) and PERTAPIS, Alfie set up an industrial catering kitchen (Ikhlas Catering) which provides jobs to workers from the marginalised sectors, such as ex-offenders, single mothers, and the disabled. Ikhlas Catering has been in operation since 2004 and now has a total staff of 17 full-time and 10 part-time personnel. In addition, he has initiated at least 2 other Social Enterprise.
Alfie’s involvement in the social enterprise community in Singapore also includes work with a number of government ministries. He has been appointed for two-year tenure on MCYS’s Social Enterprise Steering Committee chaired by Phillip Yeo and assigned to the Strategic Planning and Finance Sub-Committees. The Steering Committee is tasked with developing and presenting recommendations to the government on methods of promoting social enterprise and social entrepreneurship in Singapore. In the finance committee with a budget of SGD 3 million per year, he is a part of the evaluation team that provide start-up grant up to SGD 300,000 per applicant for budding Social Entrepreneurs. Alfie seats in the board of the Social Enterprise Association. He has also been appointed Mentor and Guest Lecturer for Diploma in Social Enterprise and Business at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. He is one of the speakers for Agents of Change 2009 Seminar conducted by the Centre of Asia and Globalisation under the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
Alfie initiated the formation of the first urban microcredit scheme in Singapore. The Micro Credit Business Scheme was launched in Nov 2011 with strong support from the Singapore Tote Board and Post Office Savings Bank. At present he sits in the loans committee of the MCBS scheme that oversees the SGD 5 million fund.
Alfie is also an advisor to Javacrop (Community Plantation) and BMT Ventura (Micro Finance) in Indonesia. Javacrop is an investment vehicle with social impacts that mainly focuses in Community Plantation Project. At present, Javacrop is securing a 20,000 hectares land from the forest ministry to cultivate Albazia (Indonesian Teak). BMT Ventura is investment Venture Company that oversees and manages a Microfinance Co-Operative with a membership base of 1.5 million people spread over 550 branches in Java, Indonesia. At present, both are in the expansion stage and are self-investing and at the same time raising capital from investors.