SMEDA organises symposium on challenges faced by women entrepreneurs

PESHAWAR: Small & Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) in collaboration with Shaoor Foundation for Education & Awareness organized a knowledge sharing symposium on challenges faced by women entrepreneurs.

The event was organized under Fostering Critical Thinking and Entrepreneurial Skills in Young Women for Gender Inclusive Socioeconomic Development (FCTEW) for women at National Incubation Centre, Peshawar.

The purpose of the event was to sharing leanings from the project’s phase 1 in Women University Swabi, discuss interventions, challenges and initiatives for women entrepreneurs at policy and government’s front, deliberate on opportunities and assert to work forward for collective effort for future financial empowerment projects.

In his inaugural remarks, Rashid Aman, Provincial Chief SMEDA KP highlighted the role of SMEDA in women economic development and appreciated the efforts being coordinated by Shaoor Foundation for the same cause.

The session had two panel discussions: one on Women Empowerment Entrepreneurial Development Initiatives and Challenges that was attended by Saima Amjad( vice President Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry Peshawar), Rehma Riaz(Regional Business Coordinator SMEDA), Roomy Sajjad (Associate Professor IMSciences) and Sumera Farman (Officer TDAP).

All participants of the first session emphasized on the need of collective empowerment initiatives that give power to local women. The session highlighted the constraints faced by women entrepreneurs in business, reviewed their operating environment, described the predominant challenges and solutions

The second panel discussion was on ‘Role of Incubators and Financial Service Providers in Women Entrepreneurial and Linkages Development in Pakistan’.

The purpose of this session was to discuss the possibilities of collaboration and create a bridge between women entrepreneurs, academia, financial service providers and incubators. It had Rashid Aman(Provincial Chief SMEDA), Sharf un-Nisa Khattak (Regional Head First Women Bank North), Qazi Waheed Uz Zaman (Head IMDurshal Peshawar), Tehmina Kazmi( Gender Specialist ERDA) and Bilal Farooq (Head Marketing and Communications NIC).

Speaking on the session, Rashid Aman said that increasing the number of entrepreneurs and creating conditions for them to succeed has the potential to improve economic opportunities for everyone.”

Dr Munazza Yaqoob, lead consultant on the project discussed the importance of Critical Thinking and its role in women’s empowerment.

Vice Chancellor, Women University Swabi, Dr Shahana Urooj Kazmi, appreciated the efforts of Shaoor Foundation for Education and Awareness for providing the students and teachers training and holistic networking platform and opportunities.

Raja Shoaib Akbar, Executive Director Shaoor Foundation for Education and Awareness said that in Pakistan, there are many reasons why women are the most neglected segment of the workforce.

They said that women are not only lagging behind in education, rather also in technical skills and professionalism than their male counterparts in the society. This initiative is more focused towards specific programmes for women entrepreneurship and critical thinking development.

Parveen Agha, ex Federal Secretary also stressed that through women empowerment will make the nation and country strong and usher sustainable economic growth in the country. She termed women development pre-requisite for accomplishment of any national development plan.

The seed grant winners; namely little Joys by Hira, Waqt Pe, Bukhari Diagnostics and Hope by Shadab; from the project also shared their project pitches and progress with the stakeholders and received valuable feedback and appreciation from the audiences.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022