One-stop Shop Needed To Develop Women Entrepreneurs: Speakers

One-stop shop is need of the hour to facilite women entrepreneurs in Pakistan by creating a common network of the national and international development organizations with a synergized policy

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Mar, 2023 ):One-stop shop is need of the hour to facilite women entrepreneurs in Pakistan by creating a common network of the national and international development organizations with a synergized policy.

The speakers at a Webinar on "Strengthening Women Entrepreneurship Ecosystem" made this demand. The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) hosted the webinar in connection with World Women Day here on Tuesday.

The webinar was opened by Farhan Aziz Khawaja, CEO SMEDA and was concluded by Ms Zeba Bakhtiar, Famous Artist and the former president Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Quetta. MS. Fareeha Ummar, Portfolio Manager UN Women, Ms Masooma Sibtain, Former vice president FPCCI, Ms Faiqa Naseem, Deputy Director SBP, Ms Fatima Zaka, Founder CEO of the Farmette, Ms Hasna Sami, Director Samad Group of Industries, Ms Nadia Jahangir Seth, GM SMEDA and Ms Tania Buttar Deputy General Manager SMEDA were prominent amongst others who addressed the webinar.

SMEDA CEO Farhan Aziz Khawaja assured that the opinions emerged in the webinar would be incorporated in the future policy recommendations as well as the initiatives to be taken for development of women entrepreneurship. He said that government was committed to empowering women entrepreneurs with professional skills in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sector of the country.

Speaking on this occasion, Ms Fareeha Ummar, Portfolio Manager UN Women said huge women population of Pakistan should be made part of the national economy by facilitating them to become entrepreneurs through a networking of all facilitating organizations.

Ms Masooma Sibtain, former vice president FPCCI, underlined the need for an approved definition of a Women Entrepreneur to have a policy for women entrepreneurship development both at provincial and federal government level.

However, she acknowledged progressive services of SMEDA in this regard and referred to a financial programme of the SMEDA that had helped the women entrepreneurs of Multan to have business loans.

Ms Faiqa Naseem of SBP admitted that a huge gender gap existed in the disbursement of loans that needed to be narrowed down. She apprised SBP efforts in this direction and informed that SBP had directed to depute an exclusive officer to facilitate women entrepreneurs in each bank branch. She also suggested to fill in the data collection gap with regard to women entrepreneurs for helping them have an easy access to finance.

Ms Hasna Sami, Director Samad Group of Industries, claimed that Pakistan could increase its GDP up to seven percent by including women population of the country into the main stream of national economy, for which change in mindset along with conducive policies in financial institutions were required. She termed the emergence of internet technology a great blessing for the business development and said that women entrepreneurs must equip themselves with the emerging digital literacy.

In her address, Ms Fatima Zaka, founder CEO of Formette, identified the role of women in agri-businesses and called for policy interventions to promote rural business based upon the agriculture sector.

while concluding the webinar, Ms Zeba Bakhtiar, former president WCCI Quetta, said that despite facing a lot of challenges, many Pakistani women were emerging victorious and making a mark by learning the art of entrepreneurship and climbing up the corporate ladder.