Govt urged to help revive women’s business in flooded areas

Staff Reporter Islamabad: A large number of women businesses have been destroyed in flood-hit areas due to which women entrepreneurs are facing great hardships and urged that the federal and provincial governments should come forward to provide support to businesswomen of rural areas in reviving their businesses, said President, Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari, says a press release. He said this while addressing the 15th Annual Rural Women Leadership Conference 2022 organised by ICCI in collaboration with National Commission on the Status of Women and Potohar Organisation for Development Advocacy (PODA). Women from four provinces of Pakistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and AJK attended the event. He said that ICCI is 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 that ICCI can organise exhibitions of the products of rural businesswomen to showcase their potential for trade export. Chairman, National Commission on the Status of Women, Nilofar Bakhtiar in her address said that economic empowerment and financial inclusion of women is the best option to reduce poverty and promote prosperity in the country. She shared the initiatives of her organization to promote gender equality and empowerment of women. Sameena Nazir, founding president, PODA said that women entrepreneurs in rural areas are exporting their products to many countries, but the destruction of their businesses due to recent floods have created financial problems for them. She stressed that all stakeholders including the govt should support them in reviving their businesses.