KARACHI: Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Dr. Reza Baqir Monday said the SBP is fully facilitating women entrepreneurs to enhance their role in the country’s economic growth.
Addressing the Sehat Kahani ceremony to celebrate the one million dollar foreign investment, the Governor SBP said the SBP is taking all necessary initiatives to provide an enabling environment for IT startups and women financial inclusion. He said that cases such as Sehat Kahani can serve as an inspiration for other startups especially those created and led by women.
Sehat Kahani, a Tele Health Company, has raised a one million dollar investment from leading Global investors including Saudi Arabia based Islamic Development bank, Washington based 10Pearls Ventures, Silicon Valley based Mentor’s Fund, Singapore based Korean Impact Collective Funds and Impact Investment Exchange to expand its telemedicine network in Pakistan. KASB and Din Group from Pakistan along with other international and national angels also contributed to the round.
Dr. Reza said the SBP is already working on gender mainstreaming policy titled “Banking on Equality: Reducing the Gender Gap in Financial Inclusion.” The proposed policy aims to introduce a gender lens within the financial sector through identified pillars and specific measures, to bring a shift towards women friendly business practices. In addition, SBP is building market infrastructures and facilities that support women entrepreneurs in the country.
He said that entrepreneurship and especially female-owned businesses are on utmost priority and SBP has introduced a variety of initiatives to support the women entrepreneurs. SBP is fully facilitating the women entrepreneurs and Sehat Kahani is one of the examples of the SBP measurer, he added.
Dr. Baqir said that under the women financial inclusion program SBP has launched special financing scheme for women entrepreneurs and SBP is offering incentivised loans at 5 percent markup to financially support the women entrepreneurs. Under this scheme, the SBP is providing financing to banks, which identified and provide the loans to the women borrowers at maximum 5 percent, he added.
The IT and startup sector was overlooked in our economic affairs, however, SBP with consultation of the all stakeholders taken a number of measures to facilitate this sector.
“We are also allowing startups to form holding companies abroad to enhance our foreign remittances. This is a model that is followed worldwide to empower local economies and businesses,” he said.
He informed that in February, SBP revised the foreign exchange manual and find a solution to allow the startups to setup their holding companies abroad without any approval from SBP. This was demand of the startup and accordingly, SBP revised the policy and allowed the transfer of funds for setup of holding company abroad.
On the feedback of the industry, startup are also allowed to acquire international digital service providing companies listed by the SBP and banks are allowed to make up to 200,000 payment without SBP approval to these companies. Previously, only 10,000 payments were allowed, Governor SBP mentioned. In addition, foreign investors can repatriate their disinvest amount without SBP’s approval.
Dr. Reza congratulated the Sehat Kahani for this milestone achievement and said that this will be a case study for many other female entrepreneurs that how gender should never be a barrier on the way to success.
On the occasion, Federal Minister of Information & Communication Technologies Syed Aminul Haque said that this is very heartening to see female entrepreneurs coming forward in tech and bringing foreign investment in Pakistan. “I wish to see more such events where females led organizations are raising foreign investment for Pakistan,” he added.
The IT sector in the country has shown substantial growth in the last few years. The country’s exports of Information Technology related services have grown by 40 percent in the last 6 months only.
He informed that 5G services are also expected to be launched by the end of the year and local Smartphone manufacturing has also begun in Pakistan.
Sehat Kahani is a Tele Health Company, founded by two female doctors Dr. Sara Saeed Khurram and Dr. Iffat Zafar Aga, which turned entrepreneurs.
On the occasion Dr. Sara Saeed Khurram Said that the investors trust has further reflected the massive success of Sehat Kahani that has celebrated a massive 425 percent growth in the last 12 months only.
Dr. Iffat Zafar Co-founder and COO said that they are absolutely grateful to all the investors for trusting Sehat Kahani. “We are thrilled to replicate our successful business model towards the mass consumer retail market in 2021and beyond,” she added.
With an expanded network of 5,000 doctors and a successfully implemented agile platform that can be tailored for different target markets, Sehat Kahani is now positioning itself for regional expansion in a world embracing the new normal with digital transformation.
The ceremony was attended by, leading IT companies, corporate and business partners of Sehat Kahani from Banking, Pharma, Insurance and other business sectors of Pakistan.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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