Pakistan Women Entrepreneurship Programme (PWEP) wrapped up its activities for the second phase with a Women Summit recently. The programme is a joint venture of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and American University (AU), Washington DC. It is supported by the US Department of State and US-Pakistan Women Council. Started in 2014 under the umbrella of Social Enterprise Development Centre (SEDC) LUMS, PWEP has trained 88 businesswomen in different areas of business management including marketing, accounting, supply chain management, finance and leadership.
The Women Summit brought together entrepreneurs from the first and second cohort of the programme. The summit started with a welcome note by the Programme Director Dr Misbah Tanveer Chaudhry, followed by a guest speaker session on the importance of company registration for entrepreneurs. The session was delivered by Shazia Suleiman, President Women Chambers of Commerce & Industry, Lahore.
Kimberly Cayce, Adjunct Professional Lecturer, and Stephanie Fischer, Director Experiential Learning, from AU conducted a ninety-minute workshop with the participants on Business Improvement Planning. It was followed by a session on debunking myths about commercial bank loans by Hafiz Muhammad Azeem Malik, Relationship Manager (SME & Commercial Loans) Allied Bank Limited.
At the end of the session, women entrepreneurs shared their experience of being a part of the PWEP programme, how they implemented the training into their businesses and the results achieved. The event was also attended by the Dean Suleiman Dawood School of Business, Dr Jawad Syed and guests from the US Consulate Lahore Yuriy Fedkiw (Counsel General), Michael Guinan (Public Affairs Officer) and Tanveer Hassan (Cultural Affairs Officer).-PR