2nd round of Karandaaz Financial Inclusion for Women Challenge launched

ISLAMABAD: Karandaaz Pakistan, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), has launched the second round of its annual challenge titled, Karandaaz Financial Inclusion for Women Challenge.

Under this challenge, Karandaaz is inviting applications to support ideas that create financial products specifically directed at women consumers and improve overall financial inclusion for women in Pakistan. The proposed ideas may be technological solutions that can result in large number of women using formal financial services or women centric financial products and channels for credit, savings, insurance, investments, etc. with an adoption strategy and addressing a specific need of a segment of women. Successful applicants will be awarded mentoring support and a grant of up to Rs15 million per winner in order to pilot, test and scale their promising ideas.

Ali Sarfraz, CEO Karandaaz Pakistan said, "As the world economies emerge out of the shadows of the pandemic, I think it is time for a wider discussion on gender and finance."

According to the last Findex data collected by the World Bank in 2017, women's financial inclusion is alarmingly low at just 7% in Pakistan. Even if the situation has improved since, we have a long way to go and we hope that this challenge from Karandaaz and all our efforts combined will help the country improve this important indicator."

Rehan Akhtar, Chief Digital Officer at Karandaaz Pakistan said, "I believe that if we put enough focus on any problem, we can come up with a sustainable solution."

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020