By Asim Shahzad
LAHORE:
HomeNet Pakistan, in collaboration with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA), organized a Policy Dialogue on “Economic Empowerment of Women Micro-Entrepreneurs – A Road Map for Formalization.”
The dialogue is part of HomeNet Pakistan’s ongoing efforts to support Women Micro-Entrepreneurs (WMEs), particularly in the garment and textile sectors, by advancing their financial inclusion and transition from informal to formal businesses.
The event shared key insights and best practices from the Financial Inclusion through Business Booster Loans and Trainings (FBLT) Project, supported by JICA, and aligned these with future strategies under SMEDA’s upcoming national Technical Cooperation Program. It brought together diverse stakeholders, including government representatives, microfinance institutions, fintech innovators, and private sector actors—to explore ways of strengthening digital and financial inclusion frameworks for women entrepreneurs.
Highlighting the scale of the challenge, Ume Laila, Executive Director of HomeNet Pakistan, noted that:
“According to the Punjab HBWs Survey, 79% of women home-based workers are engaged in crafts and related trade, 80.5% are in the manufacturing sector, and 62.4% are self-employed. This underscores the urgent need for policies that engage, recognize, and strengthen millions of self-employed women in Pakistan; transforming their skills into sustainable and respectable livelihoods.”
She further emphasized that the definition of women micro-entrepreneurs must be fully integrated across financial policies and programs to realign growth frameworks for women not only in Punjab but across Pakistan.
Speaking on the occasion,Sarfraz Ahmed Nadeem, Deputy Chief of Microfinance at the State Bank of Pakistan, began his address by acknowledging the valuable contributions of stakeholders involved with the HNP and highlighted the State Bank of Pakistan’s key policy initiatives aimed at promoting women entrepreneurship, gender equality, and the development of 18 women-specific banking products.
Mr. Nadeem also said Recognizing the importance of women’s empowerment and foreseeing it as a tool for poverty alleviation, SBP has addressed the gender gap in Pakistan’s financial sector through a range of policy measures and direct interventions.
He further shared, under the SBP’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) 2023, SBP is committed to improve usage in women’s accounts with a headline target of reaching 20 million active women accounts by 2023. Prior to this, under NFIS 2015, SBP achieved its headline target of improving adult women’s account ownership to 25% by 2020, well before the timeline, as the ratio stood at 27% by 2018. He also informed the audience about improving access to finance for the women entrepreneurs, SBP launched a refinance cum credit guarantee scheme for women borrowers across the country. Under the scheme, refinancing will be provided by SBP at 0% with 60% risk coverage to participating financial institutions for onward lending to women entrepreneurs across the country at a mark-up rate of up to 5% per annum.
He also shared about Asaan Accounts are offered by all Commercial, Islamic and Microfinance banks. It is especially targeted towards women or housewives, skilled or unskilled work force, farmers, less educated or uneducated people, laborers or daily wagers, self-employed individuals, pensioners, young adult population etc.
Additionally, he informed the audience about the State Bank of Pakistan’s helpline for lodging complaints: 📞 021-111-727-273. underscored the importance of gender-responsive financial frameworks.Tania Buttar highlighted SMEDA’s commitment to strengthening policy support for women-led enterprises through the upcoming cooperation program. Tania Buttar further shared Women’s Economic Empowerment and the role of SMEDA and key functions include policy formulation, providing business development services, facilitating access to financing, and conducting training program. SMEDA organizes training programs, seminars, workshops and conferences of short duration in major cities across the country for raising awareness and capacity building of SMEs She said it’s not a financial institute to provide grant or loan but a big resource to facilitate the women in exploring business, ideas, feasibility, marketing and how to buy raw materials and also helpful in filling the documents. The institute also extend partial support to women for business.
Mr. Aamer Aziz, DG Operation and Project Director Punjab Vocational Training and Educational Institute shared various schemes and programs aimed at empowering women through vocational training and skill development. These initiatives are designed to provide women with in-demand skills, enabling them to pursue employment opportunities and achieve financial independence. . offered the certified courses for women informal workers.Fahim Akhtar from Women Development Department, Government of Punjab said WDD is implementing various schemes focused on women’s empowerment and development. These schemes aim to address issues like socio-economic empowerment, workplace challenges, and gender-based violence. He also shared about the Expo going to be held in October 2025 and asked HNP to be part of it. Nadeem Sarfraz, shared the finding of a bottleneck study on Women Owned Micro Enterprises. He said, the FBLT project was pivotal in exploring the intersection of financial inclusion and business development for women micro-entrepreneurs, especially home-based workers. The project’s theoretical framework on Financial Inclusion Strategy Framework (FISF) is a step in the right direction
Mr. Muntaz from Kashf Foundation said,as a microfinance company focused on women’s economic empowerment, providing financial services and lending solutions to low-income households and Kashf’s Gender Training are imparted to women clients along with adult males especially their husbands and adolescent boys from the community
The representatives from the State Bank of Pakistan, Bank of Punjab, HBL-Micro Finance, fintech players, and policy actors from SMEDA, UN Women, UNDP, PTVETA, KASHF, RCD, RCDP, PRSP, Pakistan Micro Finance Network, Department of Women Development, NCSW, PCSW, AWAZ-II, Media, Home Based Women Micro Entrepreneurs (WMEs) and other civil Society representatives. The dialogue addressed six thematic areas:
1. Women’s Economic Empowerment and SMEDA’s Role
2. FBLT Key Learnings and Theoretical Framework (FISF)
3. Barriers to Formalization of Women Micro-Entrepreneurs
4. HNP’s Financial Inclusion Strategy for Informal Women Workers
5. Leveraging the Role of MFIs, Fintech, and the Private Sector
6. Collaborative Road Map for Policy Integration and Program Development
A key outcome was the co-development of a policy road map to guide future programming and policy integration, with the overarching goal of enabling sustainable, inclusive economic growth for women micro-entrepreneurs across Pakistan.
The vote of thanks was delivered by Begum Mehnaz Rafi, Senior Vice President of HNP.
She expressed her heartfelt gratitude to all the participants for their presence and support. She also shared her pride in being part of the HomeNet Pakistan, emphasizing that through their efforts to empower and support women, they are contributing to building the Pakistan that Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah envisioned, a nation where women play a vital and respected role in society.
This dialogue represents a timely opportunity to bring together stakeholders across the public, private, and development sectors to shape a more inclusive, resilient, and growth-oriented policy environment for women entrepreneurs.
