A pilot project will be implemented across four union councils and 10 villages in Haripur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under which 100 women entrepreneurs will be trained. The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has entered into a strategic partnership with the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) to foster digital and economic inclusion of women entrepreneurs through training and access to digital and financial tools and opportunities for economic growth.

According to a press release, the agreement was inked at a ceremony by PTCL Group Chief Commercial Officer (GCCO) Adnan Anjum and PPAF Chief Operating Officer Nadir Gull Barech. This public-private collaboration project will empower and train female entrepreneurs to steer their firms toward long-term growth and resilience. The collaborating institutions will execute a two-week training module based on a standardized high-impact curriculum, concentrating on digital literacy, business skills, and life skills that will be useful in propelling small and medium-sized firms to success and long-term growth.

As a central site for training sessions, the PTCL will assign a physical facility that will function as a digitally equipped Hub with access to basic utilities such as Internet and training rooms. In addition, to ensure complete participation, Ufone will provide cell phones with registered SIMs and data packages for the one-year study. The PPAF will lead the process of identifying and selecting women entrepreneurs by using its current community presence through partner organisations already involved in varied development programmes. On an equity basis, it will also contribute to the ultimate cost of the project.

"No nation can achieve economic growth and prosperity without including half of its people," Adnan Anjum said at the signing event. "That is why diversity and inclusion are important concepts in PTCL's corporate strategy." I am pleased that PTCL and PPAF are collaborating to allow and empower women entrepreneurs to build their enterprises by leveraging digital technologies and access to funding. The PTCL and the PPAF share a vision for inclusive growth at the grassroots level, which we think will lead to a broad-based economic reform at the macro level."

"We are delighted to partner with the PTCL to enable and equip one hundred up-and-coming small-scale enterprises in Haripur under our joint pilot, and PTCL's onboarding will be a game changer due to the project's greater reliance on the internet and digital technologies," said Barech. The PPAF has been working across the country to promote economic growth and poverty reduction, and we feel that efforts like these will go a long way toward achieving equitable economic progress." We look forward to strengthening our collaborations with other groups like PTCL in order to provide possibilities for the marginalized, particularly rural women across the country."

The PTCL and the PPAF will take onboard more technical and strategic partners to add value to this pilot project which is expected to produce an extraordinarily replicable model in gender inclusion and women empowerment.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk