Rural businesswomen facing great hardships

Govt urged to help revive businesses destroyed by floods

ISLAMABAD:

A large number of women entrepreneurs in rural areas have lost their businesses to floods and are now facing great hardships, said Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) President Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari.

In that situation, he urged the federal and provincial governments to come up with quick measures to help them revive their businesses.

Speaking at the 15th Annual Rural Women Leadership Conference 2022, Bakhtawari emphasised that the ICCI was ready to connect the women entrepreneurs of rural areas with online platforms like Amazon so that they could get easy access to international markets to improve exports and earn more foreign exchange for the country.

He assured the women entrepreneurs that the Islamabad Chamber would organise exhibitions of products made by rural businesswomen to showcase their export potential.

In her remarks, National Commission on the Status of Women Chairperson Nilofar Bakhtiar stressed that economic empowerment and financial inclusion of women was the best option for reducing poverty and promoting prosperity in the country.

She highlighted her organisation’s initiatives for promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women.

She praised the ICCI for hosting the women conference and voiced hope that such events would help change the role of rural women, who would become “change makers” by building linkages and partnerships.

Potohar Organisation for Development Advocacy Founding President Sameena Nazir observed that women entrepreneurs in rural areas were exporting their products to many countries, but their businesses were destroyed in floods and they were facing acute financial crunch.

She sought the government’s support for reviving their businesses and emphasised that the government should take measures to empower the rural women in order to build confidence.

Many women entrepreneurs from rural areas shared their success stories at the event and highlighted the challenges being faced by them in running their businesses.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2022.

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