Pioneers of micro-finance in Pakistan, Khushhali Bank (KB), endeavours to encourage the micro and small entrepreneurs through various avenues, one of these endeavours is its Annual Shell Tameer Awards, which recently took place in Lahore.
A press release issued by the bank said on Friday these awards were given by Shell Tameer every year to cultivate the spirit of entrepreneurship towards aptitude building and community recruitment.
These awards serve to boost the morale of these young entrepreneurs and motivate them to move the economic engine of the country, whilst they learn to become self-sufficient, contributing members of the society. It is such constructive activities that reflect a company's strong commitment towards the society in which it operates.
Shell Tameer is an international initiative, globally running in 27 countries by the name of Livewire. The programme was launched on January 20, 2003, and gradually developed a trust of internal and external members. It is a sustainable development programme funded by international Shell and Shell Companies in Pakistan whilst Khushhali Bank (KB) was one of the sponsors of the Shell Tameer annual awards.
Eradicating poverty takes many years but providing the right direction to the entrepreneurs for a better and sustainable future is more than a hope and is exactly what Shell Tameer and Khushhali Bank (KB) seek to achieve through this initiative.
Khushhali Bank Limited (KB) continuously works towards increasing the standard of living of small entrepreneurs from underdeveloped and marginalised areas and enables them to earn their own livelihood through micro-finance. Moreover, Khushhali Bank Limited extends its support to Tameer by sponsoring its entrepreneurship awards which aims to provide a platform to the youth by promoting and uplifting a collaborative environment for exchanging knowledge and experience between developed, aspiring and learning members.
Shell Tameer awards also aims to identify role models and success stories from across the country. Tameer holds an award ceremony to give recognition to these young, thriving businesses and their owners. Shell Tameer has selected 50 role models to date; these role models hail from various classes of the economy ie they are chosen irrespective of their socio-economic backgrounds. Once selected, these role models are then asked to showcase their products or services at the Annual Awards Ceremony as an example to all and are awarded prizes for their achievements. This year's winners include Taj Traders from Hyderabad who won a Santro car as the 1st prize, for its Bangle Making Business, while Mustafa Khan, Owner of Vivo Cosmetics in Peshawar was the 1st runner up and was awarded a motor bike. The third prize, a laptop, went to Amna Ansir from Islamabad for her pizza business.
Khushhali Bank's client Ghulam Sakina was one of the top ten role models selected by Shell Tameer for this year's annual awards. Ghulam Sakina is a successful and passionate entrepreneur who warrants special recognition in this regard. Seizing the opportunity provided under Khushhali Bank's micro-finance scheme, Ghulam Sakina wanted to start a business of her own rather than sitting idle at home, whilst her husband worked hard in a mill to support his family. She took a loan of Rs 100 from her mother and started a very small grocery store outside her house. Re-investing the earned money again and with assistance from Khushhali Bank (KB); she steadily started a small grocery shop. Later she bought one buffalo, sew rali (a small colorful rug) and added cosmetics items to the shop. Slowly her business expanded and her husband left the mill to take care of the shop and supply milk to the neighborhood. Today Ghulam Sakina believes that one should invest in more than one means of income and work hard to become self-sufficient. In future she plans to have an employee for her livestock business, buy more buffalo and to extend her shop to a bigger extent.
The Khushhali Bank (KB) is rated as Pakistan's largest and fastest growing retail micro finance bank operating under the Central Bank regulations. Established in 2000, the Bank is funded by leading international financial institutions as a partnership between public, multinational and private sector commercial financial institutions. KB's mission is to market financial services tailored for the low income segment in line with international micro-finance practices through an extended network operating across the country's rural and urban divides.-PR