NIC hosted an inspiring session on Women Techmakers, in collaboration with Google developer Group (GDG). A panel of four women entrepreneurs addressed the attendees and shared their experiences and journeys in the world of business.
Software engineer at Anzen and founder of an AI company, Irum Zehra; a former member of Karandaaz Pakistan and co-founder of Epiphany – a social enterprise accelerator, Samar Hasan; Global Launch Director Careem, Fatima Mazhar, and Entrepreneurship Development consultant and the founder of Perspective.pk, Sana Mela talked about the challenges that women face in modern-day entrepreneurship landscape.
Sana Mela has more than a decade of creative entrepreneurship initiative building experience under her belt. Coming from an agricultural background, she has paved her way into the business industry from scratch and is on her way to building a digital platform working as the communication channel for the startups and entrepreneurial initiatives in the country. Fatima Mazhar saw an opportunity in
Fatima Mazhar saw an opportunity in Careem to pursue her own career but became exposed to several opportunities provided by the company to women across the globe. She shared that Careem not only maintains a conducive environment for its female employees but also focuses on providing women with career opportunities. Not only women are being invited to work with Careem as drivers but their technical department is also home to a large number of women tech experts, she revealed.
CEO School of Skills, Saad Hamid and Journalist Osman Husain were also among the speakers at the occasion. The event was sponsored by Mobilink. VP Digital and Financial Services at Mobilink, Aniqa Sindhu was also present on the occasion. She shed light on the Telcos and the telecommunication industry and shared plans of Jazz to venture into a digital company model in addition to the data networks and voice mail services. She added that 3G is at a nascent stage in Pakistan and Mobilink/Jazz believes that in the next three to five years, this is going to grow exponentially along with 4G and 5G. She said that when that happens, the company wants to be there for the customers to gain benefits from this technology over and beyond the current services being provided to them.
The event was sponsored by Mobilink/Jazz. VP Digital and Financial Services at Mobilink/Jazz, Aniqa Sindhu was also present on the occasion. She shed light on the Telcos and the telecommunication industry and shared plans of Jazz to venture into a digital company model through Jazz xlr8 Program for startups while keeping its current service portfolio of data networks and voice mail services. She added that 3G is at a nascent stage in Pakistan and Mobilink/Jazz believes that in the next three to five years, this is going to grow exponentially along with 4G and 5G. She said that when that happens, the company wants to be there for the customers to gain benefits from this technology over and beyond the current services being provided to them.
Talking about the competition in the Telcos, Aniqa said that as of now, no single company has a hundred percent penetration which means that growth in the industry is not a zero-sum game. She revealed that there is room and opportunity for all players to grow and do whatever they can.
Answering a question by Sana Mela over the problems persisting in the connectivity of the available resources and their impact on productivity, Aniqa said that it takes time to build data networks and as the penetration of 3G grows in the country, its efficiency will grow as well. She also believes that digital platforms are not dependent on literacy rates. She quoted the SMS literacy campaign carried out by Mobilink a couple of years ago. She said that the success of a mere SMS program proves how efficient digital landscape can be in terms of promoting literacy.
