‘Women empowerment to end poverty’

Queen Maxima says technology can help introduce financial services for excluded segment

LAHORE: Digital financial services in Pakistan like the Finja payment platform should support housewives and other women in setting up small home-based industries and businesses, said United Nations Secretary General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA) Queen Máxima.

Talking to small merchants during her visit to the Ghalib Market, Gulberg on Wednesday, she stressed the need for economic empowerment of women to end poverty in Pakistan. In a bid to learn more about how digital financial services solutions of Finja could support financial inclusion, Máxima directly spoke with some of the shopkeepers, who reaped benefits of the service.

She emphasised the importance of technology, which could help introduce financial services for the excluded segment of society.

Muhammad Abid Islam, who runs a general store at Ghalib Market, told the queen that he had earlier been suffering huge financial losses but “now he has managed to digitise his supply chain, credit, payments and financing services.”

PM reiterates resolves to alleviate poverty

Queen Máxima also met with Sofia Bibi, a housewife and beautician, who offers her services on a mobile app called GharPar, which specialises in providing salon services at home. The housewife shared her experience of receiving payments on the mobile wallet and how it made her self-sufficient.

“I am very happy. When you invest in a woman, you invest in the whole family,” remarked the queen.

Briefing the queen, Finja Co-founder Umer Munawwar termed small and medium enterprises the backbone of any growing economy and regretted that their access to credit remained dismal in Pakistan.

“Digital financial services serve the unbanked and under-banked segment, helping it compete and grow through cheaper, quicker and efficient lending solutions,” he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Finja CEO Qasif Shahid said promoting financial inclusion was included in the company’s value system.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28^th, 2019.

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