Category: Business

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Zong 4G, Pakistan’s cellular and digital services frontrunner, has joined hands with OP Digital Services Pvt. Ltd (OPay) to integrate the mobile top-up facility in OPay’s point of sale (POS) terminals. Through this collaboration, OPay will ensure that customers have the availability of mobile recharge at more locations such as shopping malls, pharmacies etc. and will help merchants to increase customer engagement on their respective locations.

This partnership will help both organizations in moving forward in their mission to provide digital solutions to their customers. It is also the first time that a POS service provider will enable merchants to provide mobile top-up services through its physical touch points. This new addition to OPay’s services will also enable merchants to serve their customers with new smart POS solutions which will be offered through the agent network with the objective of creating a positive impact on financial inclusion.

“We’re happy to have partnered with OP Digital Services to help Zong customers recharge their mobile balance more conveniently at more retailers,” shared Zong’s official spokesperson. “The development is also in-line with both organizations’ mission of digital and financial enablement in Pakistan through which merchants will also see increased customer engagement.” “Partnering with a cellular and digital services giant like Zong will help us reach out to more customers across Pakistan, facilitating them in topping up their mobile balance with more convenience,” shared Qaiser Sheikh, Director Partnerships at OPay Pakistan.

“We share the goals of digitalization in Pakistan and that very motto has brought the two organizations closer.” OPay is a fintech company based out of Beijing with a presence across Africa and Asia and a valuation over US$ 2 billion. It is a one-stop mobile-based platform for payment, transportation, food & grocery delivery, and other important services in everyday life. Millions of users rely on OPay everyday to send and receive money, pay bills among other services.

Zong 4G is the digital partner for the Pakistani youth and is leading Pakistan to a new era of connectivity and opportunities. Being a customer-centric company offering innovative solutions and services, Zong is leaving no stone unturned to address the needs of the digitally savvy generation. With 14,000+ 4G towers and the best data and value added services, Zong 4G proves to be the network of choice for millions of young people.

Lahore (Nut Desk)

The recently launched TECNO Spark 8C becomes a consumer favorite by selling over 50,000 units in just two weeks. The phone comes in two variants, where the 4+128GB has become a popular demand as compared to the 3+64GB version.

The renowned Chinese smartphone manufacturer, TECNO Mobile has gathered a large customer base in Pakistan. The Spark series has been loved by users for its latest mobile technologies and economical prices. The latest Spark 8C comes with some amazing specifications, was sold like hotcakes, and has already crossed the 50,000 units sold milestone. The demand has increased many folds during Ramadan but TECNO ensures sufficient product supply in the market.

With up to 3GB of Expandable memory, Spark 8C is equipped with the best features in the competitive market. The phone brings the Memory Fusion Technology with an Iconic Design and a stylish Camera. Spark 8C supports an 8MP front camera, 13MP Rear AI dual camera, 6.56” HD+ Dot Notch Display, 90Hz refresh rate, and 5000mAh Battery. Moreover, it is available in four aesthetically stylish colors – Magnetic Black, Turquoise Cyan, Iris Purple, and Diamond Grey.

Kelvin Zeng, CEO of TECNO Mobile Pakistan shared his view on reaching this milestone,

“This is not the first time our local consumers have stunned us with huge sales. We are very humbled by the response we get from the Pakistani community. This shows that our efforts in making each phone are not wasted and that technology is reaching every household. Spark 8C is yet another example of our efforts in providing the best features in the minimum budget. Features like Memory fusion, stylish designs, and bigger display cannot be found at such a competitive price.”

Apart from Expandable memory, the TECNO Spark 8C brings features such as Customized Beauty, Rear Camera decoration and Fingerprint sensor design, SOPLAY, other special audio features, and much more. So go and get this amazing device from your nearest retailer.

 

Much like the realme 9 Pro+’s Light Shift Design, Sajal debuts a bold and different look for realme

A stylish and performance-oriented smartphone like the realme 9 Pro+ needs a brand ambassador like the illustrious Sajal Aly. The actress and model has a history of successful TV and film projects locally as well as in the international sphere. She made her acting debut in the 2009 sit-com Nadaaniyan and went on to have many breakthrough roles in local telefilms and TV serials. In 2016, she made her silver screen debut with Zindagi Kitni Haseen Hai before landing a lead role across the border in the Bollywood film Mom. She is all set to make her Hollywood debut in Shekhar Kapur’s What’s Love Got to do with it? Partnering with realme, Sajal has made an aesthetic shift. She has taken on a young, fresh, trendy avatar showing she can pull of any look much like the realme 9 Pro+ with its aesthetic Light Shift Design. This innovative design is available in the realme 9 Pro+’s Sunrise Blue variant and will be the first color-shifting smartphone in its price segment.

Inspired by photo-chromism and organic photochromic materials, the rear panel of the smartphone changes color from Sunrise Blue to a sparkling red color under sunlight or UV light. Once removed from the source of light, the back panel reverts back to its original color in a time period of between 2-5 minutes. realme fans from 9 different time zones around the world were asked to contribute images of the rising sun, which allowed designers to pick out the most classic color changes that occur during sunrise. This led to the selection of a cool blue and a harsher red to accurately reflect the colors of the sky. It took over 200 attempts with scientific testing to overcome the challenges standing in the way of making this design a reality. This included inquiry into how to ‘alter’ the molecular structure to make the material change colors and revert back quickly.

In order to finally achieve this effect, realme first created the pioneering dual-layer photochromic process. After some creative thinking, an organic composite layer was layered on top which not only guarantees the desired effect but also increases the color rendering rate by 40%. This three layer process creates a shiny, color-rich, rear panel with a vibrant vertical beam that shines from any angle you view it from.

With such a fun and dynamic design concept on the outside one might be tempted to think there isn’t much substance on the inside but the realme 9 Pro+ will surely prove you wrong. Boasting premium features such as a 50MP AI Triple Camera with Sony IMX766 OIS Sensor, MediaTek Dimensity 920 5G chipset, 60W SuperDart Charge, and a colossal 4500mAh battery, the realme 9 Pro+ is coming to give tough competition to the high-end smartphones in the market. So Dare to Leap with realme and Sajal Aly and gear up for the upcoming release of the realme 9 Pro+ which will be available with your local smartphone vendors very soon.

Lahore (Nut Desk)

PSDF (Punjab Skills Development Fund) has signed an agreement of PKR 150 million with Koh e Suleman Improvement project (KISP) to lead its skill trainings for residents of Tehsil Koh e Suleman, DG Khan and De-excluded area of Rajanpur. These areas comprise primarily of tribal communities with low literacy levels and until now have had limited opportunities for personal and economic development. During the first phase of this project, 2000 residents will receive training and are aimed to include at least 20 percent female trainees.

The residents will gain trainings across four key industries: Light Engineering, Construction, Services and Textiles. The trainings will be the first of their kind in these districts and PSDF will use its skill expertise to equip residents with market-relevant professional knowledge to commence their skill development and open career opportunities for them. To mobilize this project, training centres will also be established in the tribal areas to execute the trainings and create ease of access for the residents. A stipend of Rs 3500 monthly, will also be provided to the trainees to facilitate their learning journey.

The on-ground trainings are scheduled to commence in July of this year. During the contract signing ceremony Maqbool Ahmed (Project Director, KISP) remarked, “We look forward to working with PSDF on this project, PSDF’s expertise in executing quality skills trainings will bring a lot of value for these communities and prepare them to access income-generating opportunities”. PSDF COO Ali Akbar Bosan also echoed this sentiment, “These trainings are aimed at developing the local resident’s skillsets in professional fields that are growing and employers are actively seeking to hire workers in.

PSDF will utilize its experience to ensure that our trainees receive the right technical knowledge and develop valuable skillsets, so they can confidently pursue employment opportunities throughout the country”. PSDF is the country’s largest skill development fund and has established itself as a skills expert by training more than 500,000 women and men in 250 plus trades. It has also successfully implemented trainings on behalf of FCDO, World Bank and the Government of Punjab.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) In an effort to improve food packaging and follow hygiene standards during food preparation, foodpanda partnered with Punjab Food Authority (PFA) in order to train Homechefs regarding enhanced safety protocols and government SOPs.

The training session was conducted with the objective to encourage and promote food safety culture across Punjab, training the Homechefs on basic hygiene and safe food preparation.

Speaking on the occasion, Mustafa Dogar, Additional DG, PFA said, “We are pleased to collaborate with foodpanda and train these talented individuals on hygiene and safe food preparation. Our goal is to promote this culture and encourage everyone to adhere to these protocols for a healthy environment.”

Homechefs are essentially people operating out of their home kitchens who sell food through online platforms. foodpanda currently have several thousand registered homechefs who have been taken on-board after stringent routine checks for food hygiene, quality, safety, packaging, etc. The company’s aim is to increase the homechefs base in the next two years and take it up to 100,000 registered homechefs.

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Pakistani telecom operator Ufone 4G brings a new range of prepaid data roaming packages for Saudi Arabia to help customers stay connected to their loved ones. Ufone 4G offers the industry’s best and most economical data services through Saudi Telecommunication Company (STC) and  Mobily networks covering the entirety of the Holy land.  Apart from high-speed data, the offer also brings unrestricted access to all social media platforms including WhatsApp, so now you can enjoy uninterrupted WhatsApp audio and video calls around the globe.

To enjoy seamless services at affordable prices, Ufone 4G users can now dial *506# and choose from three economical prepaid data roaming packages to satisfy all their data needs. For PKR 350 customers can enjoy 1,000 MBs, for PKR 700 customers can subscribe to 2,500 MBs and for PKR 1,500 customers can satisfy their big-data needs with 5,000 MBs. All data roaming buckets are valid for 30 days and allow customers to enjoy glitch-free services without any restrictions.

Through the much needed offering, Ufone 4G has once again guaranteed that the telecom operator caters to the needs of its valuable customers traveling to Saudi Arabia during Ramzan by providing them with affordable and easy data solutions. Whether they want to check their emails, browse through their social media, share pictures of the holy places with their dear ones or enjoy unlimited video and voice calls on WhatsApp, Ufone 4G is dedicated to offering great value through lucrative data benefits, allowing its customers to reduce distances and stay connected with their family and friends any time of the day.

Ufone 4G is always at the forefront to facilitate its users through the best product and services offerings in the industry. Being a customer-centric company, it continues to expand its products and services portfolio by continuously improving its voice and data services. To subscribe to data roaming buckets, users can dial *506#

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) Pakistan’s largest public sector commercial bank, National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) inaugurated the first Islamic Window of NBP Aitemaad in the Main Branch of NBP in Karachi.

The National Bank of Pakistan is Pakistan’s one of the largest commercial bank with over 1500 branches, and its Islamic Banking arm that provide Shariah compliant financial services from over 188 branches/windows nationwide.

Mr. Arif Usmani, CEO & President NBP inaugurated the branch and said, “The demand for Shariah compliant banking solutions and services has seen a sharp increase. We are optimistic that with NBP Aitmemaad’s new innovative products and solutions such as Islamic Window, will enable NBP to serve our clients and customers with tailor made financial solutions while maintaining our lead as the eminent Islamic Banking player in the industry.” “We are proud to be one of the leading Islamic financial institutions in the country with more than 180 branches nationwide and expansions plans in the pipeline.”

Commenting on the multifunctional branch opening, Mr. Fouad Farrukh, SEVP & Group Chief, Aitemaad Islamic Banking, said, “NBP has always strived to set benchmark for the banking industry in Pakistan. We have grown the Islamic Banking branch network exponentially in the last few years and expanded our coverage to over 100 cities this year. With the new Islamic Window operation for NBP Aitemaad, we will extend the outreach of Shariah compliant Islamic Banking products and services to our customers.”

 

 

Abdul Razak Dawood Praises Dawlance and Arcelik as they launch a new indigenously designed localised Split AC

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Dawlance – Pakistan’s No. 1 brand of home appliances in Pakistan and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Arcelik, Turkey, initiates its new localized AC production line built with European Standards. Arcelik – the second largest manufacturer in Europe (based in Turkey), has facilitated the design and manufacture of this product through the transfer of technology and design know-how to Pakistan in its efforts to facilitate and support the Government of Pakistan’s Make in Pakistan thrust and to facilitate its subsidiary in to strategically serve its large consumer base in Pakistan and in other countries.

Since the corporate acquisition of Dawlance in 2016, this resourceful global enterprise has consistently invested in Pakistan in building capacity, upgrading products, and transferring technology to Pakistan.

The progressive move to set up a state-of-the-art production line in Pakistan for split air-conditioners aims not only to facilitate the consumers to benefit from the latest technology of indigenously-designed ACs but also pave the way for increased foreign exchange earnings through a noticeable increase in the export of the country and paving the way for sustainable economic growth within the sector.

Chief Executive Officer, Dawlance, Mr. Umar Ahsan Khan met the Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce, Mr. Abdul Razzaq Dawood, in Islamabad to discuss this progressive step which has been taken in the interest of benefitting the consumers as well as the country’s economy via a vision aimed at boosting the exports of the home appliances sector of Pakistan.

“This assembly line will not only serve the consumers locally but also carries a vision to reach consumers around the globe via a noticeable surge in the exports from Pakistan”, he added while discussing the vision of his organization.

Appreciating the progressive efforts taken in the interest of consumers and the country’s economic growth, The Adviser to Prime Minister of Pakistan for Commerce and investment Mr. Abdul Razak Dawood said, “I congratulate Dawlance, Arcelik, and the whole Pakistani nation, on successfully executing this revolutionary project that will open new vistas for Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), Commercial-Collaborations, and Technology-Transfers, between Pakistan and Turkey, while the two brotherly nations pursue the vision to work together, for enriching the global home appliances and electronics industry.”

Through this venture, Arçelik has transferred product-design technology for capacity-building in Pakistan. This production line will not only cater to local Pakistani consumers but will also add great value to exports of Pakistan thereby adding to the foreign exchange earnings of Pakistan. Dawlance now has more than 60 engineers, working exclusively on Research & Development in Pakistan, to design world-class environmentally sustainable products, while the company’s Design-Services are now also being exported to other subsidiaries of Arcelik in many countries.

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) Mr. Asif Peer, CEO and Managing Director at Systems Limited, and Mr. Najeeb Agrawalla, CEO at 1LINK, joined hands to accelerate business transformation efforts through informed data-driven technology, contributing to the vision of ‘Digital Pakistan’.

The signing ceremony was held in the presence of the senior management from Systems Limited and 1LINK including Mr. Asif Peer, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, Systems Limited, Mr. Azimullah Khan, Chief Information Officer, Mr. Syed Suleman Hasan, Chief Risk Officer, Mr. Muhammad Shahzeb, AGM Risk, Strategy and Corporate Affairs, Mr. Muhammad Zahid, Senior Manager, Data, SQA & Development. Senior executive from Systems Limited who were present at the signing agreement included Mr. Sarfaraz Paracha, VP Client Engagement & Sales, Mr. Sohail Chaudhry, Data & Analytics Growth Leader BFSI, and Mr. Syed Asad Ali Naqvi, AVP Sales.

This handshake symbolizes Systems Limited’s collaboration with 1LINK to help internal and external stakeholders, which now spans over 37 commercial and microfinance banks, 1,400+ billers, 13 affiliate members, 08 aggregators and 10+ non-banking bill initiators. 1LINK key payment products and services to these entities include 1IBFT, Bill Payment Services, Sohni Dharti Remittance Program, Shared ATM Network, Open APIs, Fraud Risk Management and Dispute Resolution Services.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Asif Peer, CEO & Managing Director Systems Limited said, “The Business Intelligence platform will empower 1LINK to leverage financial data smartly and meet long-term transformation goals, spearheading industry growth for stakeholders and investors alike. We look forward to a tremendous partnership and future together.”

Extending his views on this partnership, Mr. Agrawalla remarked “Data in the 21^st Century is an immensely untapped asset of Pakistan. For an institution like 1LINK, which strives on interoperability and facilitates payments for the financial industry of Pakistan, the business intelligence (BI) platform will help in operational and strategic decision making. BI will enable us to have deeper business insights that can help 1LINK and its members create new products and services required by the industry. We look forward to receiving an invaluable contribution from Systems Ltd. as our BI consultants and implementation partners”.

This technology centered project will assist 1LINK in making make more efficient, data-driven, and informed decisions to enable actionable insights for the entire eco-system, creating better customer engagement and digital acceleration in Pakistan’s financial sector. Through this data analytics platform, 1LINK aims to structure its information in data marts and eventually integrate the multifaceted dynamics of each of its partners network as well as stakeholders into one centralized payment analytical platform.[SK1] [SK2]