Karachi, October 23, 2019: The First MicroFinanceBank Limited, Pakistan (FMFB-P) collaborated with Ms. Saeeda Mandviwalla of TONI&GUY Karachi, to provide vocational training skills, mainly entrepreneurial and leadership skills, to beauty parlour owners and technicians. The aim of this endeavour is to encourage these women to improve their livelihoods by facilitating the growth of their businesses. This seminar took place on 23rd October at Beach Luxury Hotel, Karachi.
FMFB-P works towards strengthening its client’s entrepreneurial base by helping them build their financial, physical and human capital. In line with its mission of providing access to formal financial services to vulnerable client segments, especially women, this collaborative effort was initiated.
The event was designed to demonstrate to the audience, some of the best salon practices that are being adopted by Ms. Mandviwalla in her field. In demonstrating this, the trainees would absorb this knowledge and use it to revamp their own business model to bring it up to par with international standards. Ms. Mandviwalla facilitated this through live demonstrations along with tips and tricks entailed in running a salon.
As a part of the seminar, The First MicroFinanceBank Limited, Pakistan supported the participants via structured financial solutions to facilitate acquisition of technical capacities and business assets for the upgrading of their beauty parlors.
On this occasion, Maya Inayat Ismail, Member, Board of Directors at First MicroFinanceBank Limited, Pakistan commented, “From its inception, the First Microfinance Bank Ltd, has endeavoured to provide innovative, targeted financial, and multi-sectoral products and services based on the evolving needs of under-privileged households. We are particularly committed to helping women improve their standing in the community. We strive to achieve a future in which all women, young or old, regardless of race, ethnicity, income level or social status, are nurtured and empowered to reach their fullest potential. It gives us great pleasure to host this capacity building seminar, where all the participants will gain key insights on how to improve their skills, and I would like to use this opportunity to extend the continuing support of the bank to help enterprising women on their journey towards sustainable growth.”
“My passion has enabled me to empower other women & it gives me great privilege today to be able to support home-based business women to grow and develop their own enterprise. The aim of this collaboration with the First Microfinance Bank is to allow women to participate fully in the economy, become financially sustainable, expand their networks, build confidence in themselves and ultimately improve their standards of living,” said Ms. Saeeda Mandviwalla.
“The activities of the project are designed to address major difficulties women face, and foster women’s entrepreneurial skills and potential. This will focus on women who can actively engage in independent entrepreneurial ventures but can also mentor, family-oriented female entrepreneurs who prefer working from home or have mobility concerns. The overall aim is to build a scalable and replicable business model that follows and aims to achieve a tangible increase in the national GDP and overall inclusion of women in the workforce.”
The key participants of the seminar were members of FMFB-P and core TONI&GUY Karachi Team, along with clientele of the Bank that operate small saloons in different areas of Karachi.
