Category: Business

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) Rain Financial, Inc. a global leading cryptocurrency trading platform, has appointed Zeeshan Ahmed as its Country General Manager, Pakistan.  While Rain is not yet operational in Pakistan, it will be advocating for the regulation and seek licensing in the country. 

Zeeshan is a senior management professional leading turnaround and growth strategies. With a career span of over 16 years, 7 of which were spent at strategic C level positions, he most recently worked as the Chief Executive Officer for Askari Enterprises (A subsidiary of AWT). 

Commenting on his appointment Zeeshan said “I am thrilled to be joining Rain Pakistan at this pivotal time for the blockchain and crypto industry. I look forward to working with the talented team at Rain and developing a licensed and regulated cryptoasset exchange in Pakistan”. 

This announcement comes just weeks after Rain Financial Inc. secured USD 110 million Series B funding. The round was co-led by Paradigm and Kleiner Perkins with participation from numerous parties including Coinbase Ventures, Global Founders Capital, MEVP, Cadenza Ventures, JIMCO, and CMT Digital. Founded in 2017 by Abdullah Almoaiqel, AJ Nelson, Joseph Dallago, and Yehia Badawy, Rain will utilize this investment to further expand licensing in other countries and regions, enhancing its technology and continuing to grow the team as cryptocurrency adoption increases globally. 

Rain Financial Inc. and its group has done over USD 2 billion worth of transactions, amassed over 200,000 active users, and now has over 500 employees, with a focus on growing its team even further across the region, by the end of 2022. 

With changing consumer behavior and increasing demand in the interest of crypto, Rain is committed to investing in building a platform that is simplified and easy to use. 

 

Jazz commits to increase female mobile broadband users, accelerates efforts to promote diversity & inclusion at the workplace

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir) Aimed at enabling more women to access health, financial, and other life-enhancing services, Pakistan’s leading digital operator Jazz has committed with GSMA Connected Women initiative to increase the proportion of female broadband users on its network by 8% by the end of next year with a dedicated focus on female smart phone ownership. The commitment was announced by Jazz CEO Aamir Ibrahim during the ‘Power to be You’ event held at Jazz Digital Headquarters in Islamabad.

The company’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) statement was unveiled at the event along with key initiatives towards empowering women at the workplace. Jazz has announced six months phase back support for new mothers on top of the already available six month paid maternity leave, an executive program on women leadership in collaboration with LUMS, and dedicated offsite learning retreats for women. Moreover, an MoU was signed with Chughtai Labs for the provision of the Pink Card which offers Jazz employees and their families a 50% discount on women related medical tests.

The event featured multiple activities, interviews, and panel discussions from industry experts including Dr. Omar Chugtai, Chughtai Lab; Dr. Sadia Nadeem, FAST School of Management; and Dr. Rakshinda Perveen, a social entrepreneur. Ayesha Raza, Co-founder of Abey Khao, a fast-food café and a startup scaled under Pakistan’s premier accelerator program Jazzxlr8, also inspired the audience with her entrepreneurship journey and how her venture is promoting social inclusion of people with hearing impairments by providing them employment opportunities.

Addressing the audience during her keynote, Dr Sania Nishtar said that women’s digital and financial inclusion is critical for not just their social protection but also to help form an inclusive and progressive society. She also lauded the role of telecom industry in accelerating digitalization across various sectors and digitally transforming citizen services.

Aamir Ibrahim, CEO Jazz reiterated the importance of adopting a collective approach to build a society where women feel empowered, safe and contribute to all areas of life. “Whilst we are nurturing a culture of equal opportunities at Jazz, externally we are empowering Pakistani women digitally with our products, services and sustainability initiatives enabling them to access health, financial and other life-enhancing services.”

Through various initiatives, Jazz is driving digital gender equality. The company has programs in place to enhance digital literacy among girls and maximize female led enterprises in the startup ecosystem. Jazz has also collaborated with Meta to launch an online safety booklet for Pakistani users, especially women, to help them understand the dynamics of digital space better and develop responsible online behavior to cope with the modern-day challenges of the digital world, voicing their thoughts while ensuring safety.

             

 

Meezan Bank and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) join hands for Digitalization of Consumer Bill Collection in Punjab, KPK and AJ&K

Lahore (Nut Desk) Meezan Bank, Pakistan’s leading Islamic bank has recently signed an agreement with Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL), the largest integrated gas company in North Central Pakistan, to enable digitalization of consumer bill collection via the Bank’s state-of-the-art Transaction Banking Solution (eBiz+).

The agreement was signed by Mr. Irfan Siddiqui – Founding President & CEO, Meezan Bank and Mr. Ali J. Hamdani – Managing Director & CEO, SNGPL in the presence of other key management members including Mr. Ariful Islam – Deputy CEO, Mr. Abdullah Ahmed – Group Head Corporate & Institutional Banking, Mr. M. Saqib Ashraf – Head Transaction Banking and Mr. M. Munir – Head Payments & Cash Management from Meezan Bank, and Mr. Faisal Iqbal – Chief Financial Officer, SNGPL.

As per the agreement, Meezan Bank will provide transaction banking services (eBiz+) to SNGPL enabling payment of gas bills by the residents of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJ&K) via e-channels and branch banking avenues offered by the Bank.

On this occasion, Mr. Ali J. Hamdani shared SNGPL’s ambition to become a leader in sourcing energy across Pakistan while providing ease of access to its consumers via eBiz+ collection services.

Mr. Irfan Siddiqui, also commented on the occasion, stating, “The agreement between Meezan Bank and SNGPL will not only strengthen the Bank’s transaction banking portfolio but will also improve the bill collection process by making it more accessible to millions. SNGPL is already a trusted corporate client for the Bank and this agreement further strengthens our relationship.”

Bank Alfalah and PAKISTAN FREELANCERS ASSOCIATION (PAFLA) collaborate to provide Digital Payments and Collection Infrastructure to Freelancers in Pakistan

Lahore (Muhammad Yasir)  Bank Alfalah has partnered with Pakistan Freelancers Association (PAFLA) to facilitate digital payments and collections for freelancers. Under the partnership, PAFLA will acquire the ability to enable freelancers in selling services globally through an integration with Alfa Payment Gateway. This platform will facilitate a robust digital payments and collection mechanism through support from Bank Alfalah’s strong and reliable infrastructure.

Freelancers contribute greatly to Pakistan’s economy and help in building a progressive reputation for the country. The Alfa Payment Gateway provides salient features to freelancers that include instant and digital onboarding, no setup, annual or maintenance fee, freelancer digital accounts, and a pay-by-link facility which will provide immense convenience to individuals offering their services to clients online.  Bank Alfalah Freelancers Digital Current Account will be a completely digital account to be opened via Bank Alfalah Mobile App and does not require any visits to the branches.

Alfa Payment Gateway is a unique product that will now allow freelancers aiming to go online through an extensive ecosystem an avenue to work efficiently with international clients and collect payments seamlessly. Together, Bank Alfalah and PAFLA will provide distinct opportunities for freelancers that are bringing in valuable foreign exchange to Pakistan. The partnership is designed to offer solutions that enable freelancers to process and collect payments in a simple, secure and cost-efficient manner from their customers via multiple payment modes e.g. Credit/Debit cards, Bank Accounts and Wallets.

Group Head – Digital Banking Group Yahya Khan was pleased to commemorate this partnership and stated “Bank Alfalah through its diverse and ever-evolving services portfolio is empowering freelancers to grow and prosper. This partnership is another step towards our objective to offer seamless services and solutions to customers in an efficient manner. It highlights our commitment to the Freelancers’ community and thus play our part in strengthening Pakistan’s economy and the future.” 

Lahore (Nut Desk)

Salaam Takaful Limited, the largest general takaful operator and the first Islamic Insurtech in Pakistan, has built a reputation of introducing new and innovative products to the market. Besides offering all the regular general takaful coverages like motor, health, travel, fire, marine and all other usual offerings, they are committed to fill gaps with innovative products such as medical malpractice takaful, loss of employment takaful, livestock takaful and parametric based crop takaful, to name a few.

Parametric crop takaful is the newest addition to its portfolio. Crop farmers, being the backbone of Pakistan’s economy, play a crucial role in the ecosystem, and are quite prone to losses due to climate change, natural calamities and pest attacks. Salaam Takaful has picked up on their issues and has devised a weather index based solution on parametric basis backed with satellite technology and advisory service which enables them to serve farmers in record time.

Parametric crop takaful works on satellite and weather tracking technology and in the event a parameter such as excess rainfall (or absence of it) gets triggered, claim payouts are also triggered automatically to the farmers. In this way, a farmer is not required to file the claim and go through the hefty process to get the benefit. Moreover, multiple perils can be parameterized and indexed using this technology and it is highly customizable hence enable farmers to be more resilient to climate change.  

Salaam Takaful has partnered with WaterSprint Ltd. to reach a bigger fraternity of farmers and to enhance the ambit of services being provided to them. Salaam Takaful and WaterSprint have jointly developed a comprehensive app to facilitate farmers on multiple fronts.

As part of its regulatory sandbox initiative to test Parametric Takaful, Salaam Takaful has initiated parametric crop takaful coverage to 61 farmers in District Rahim Yar Khan. They have collaborated with REEDS (Rural Education & Economic Development Society) Pakistan to implement this plan for the benefit of farmers. This initiative was very well received by farmers who appreciated Salaam Takaful’s step to come up with such innovative ideas and products.

A ‘coverage certificates distribution’ ceremony was held in Rahim Yar Khan. On this occasion, Mr. Umair Ismail from Salaam Takaful Limited, Mr. Naveed Alam from WaterSprint Ltd. and Mr. Shahid Saleem from REEDS Pakistan, pledged to further strengthen this partnership and work together for the betterment of farmers.

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir) Pakistan’s leading digital operator Jazz has won five awards at the Effie Awards Pakistan 2022 held last night in Karachi.

The company received three silver awards under the following categories: ‘Corporate Reputation’ category for its ‘Super Nahi Tou 4G Nahi’ campaigns showcasing the brand’s impact on creating an inclusive digital ecosystem, ‘Positive Change: Social Good – Brands (Services)’ category for its women’s day campaign, and ‘Seasonal Marketing (Services)’ category for its ‘Creating a Digital Pakistan’ campaign.

Jazz also bagged two bronze awards under the ‘Marketing Disruptors’ and ‘Topical Marketing’ categories for its drive-in cinema initiative.

“Being recognized for our unique marketing approach to build trust and inspire change feels tremendously special. This is an endorsement of the hard work our teams and partners put in to drive growth and create a brand legacy,” said Jazz CCO Asif Aziz.

These accolades are a demonstration of Jazz’s continued focus on marketing communications that is social, rooted in a collective purpose and is able to change culture. This is in line with its business and sustainability objectives of driving digital and financial inclusion, especially for women.

Karachi (Muhammad Yasir)  Engro Energy Limited in collaboration with the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), Ministry of Energy, Govt. of Sindh, Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce & Industry (OICCI), and Corporate Pakistan Group held ‘Pakistan Energy Symposium’ at a local hotel today.

The conference brought together relevant stakeholders from public sector policymakers, regulatory bodies, private sector stakeholders and industry experts to discuss the opportunities and challenges for market reforms in Pakistan with a major focus on creating a comprehensive strategy for the future of energy industry in the country. Experts at the symposium discussed the regulatory, commercial, and technical aspects of transitioning towards a liberalized and a greener energy market in Pakistan.

Addressing the symposium, CEO of Engro Energy, Ahsan Zafar Syed said, “The energy industry is the backbone of any developed economy and Pakistan is now ready to move into a competitive energy ecosystem. Transitioning from a single-buyer market to a multi-buyer system can pave the way for an efficient customer-centric energy market. It will also stimulate private infrastructure investments; lead to economic growth; give consumers access to reliable and economical power; ease pressure on electricity prices and create conditions for fair allocation of risks.”

Elaborating on Engro Energy’s initiatives in the renewable energy sector, Ahsan commented: “In line with the government’s vision of moving towards 60% green energy solutions; Engro Energy is also committing itself to expand in the renewable energy space. Our project in Jhimpir, Sindh will help solve the pressing issue of powering our industries at Port Qasim through competitive and green energy solutions. As we move ahead, Engro Energy will continue to play a part for a better and prosperous energy sector, and we welcome the efforts of both Federal and Provincial government including the regulator – NEPRA in forwarding this cause for the benefit of Pakistan”

In his opening remarks, Chairman NEPRA Tauseef H Farooqi talked about the initiatives he had taken at the regulatory authority. Talking about the CTBCM, Mr Farooqi said that he had spent a lot of time on this. “CTBCM is like creating a motorway…we have a successful model of the telecom industry and we are trying to replicate that… we are giving a choice to consumers,” he said.

“What do we want to achieve: move from the multi-seller single buyer model to multi-seller multi buyer model. Why is this important? Investors and businessmen are facing challenges which we believe they will be able to overcome with the multi-seller multi buyer model. We are liberating the market. You can do the buying and selling of your own electricity. We are trying to deregulate the market,” he added. 

The conference was attended by Muhammad Azfar Ahsan, Minister of State and Chairman, Board of Investment (BOI); Ghias Khan, President, Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce & Industry (OICCI); Muhammad Aurangzeb, Chairman, Pakistan Business Council (PBC); Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, Chairperson, Pakistan Stock Exchange & Former Governor, State Bank of Pakistan; and, Rafique Ahmed Shaikh, Member Sindh, NEPRA amongst other key dignitaries.

The dialogue focused primarily on the planning initiatives & policy interventions, its role in market reforms, the role of technology in the multi-buyer market, private sector participation and customer-centric focus on the deployment of competitive market system in the country. Two separate panel discussions on “Building Pathways for Market Liberalization” and “Unlocking the True Potential of Power Market Players” were also part of the symposium.

 

 

Lahore (Nut Desk)

Easypaisa, Pakistan’s No. 1 Payments App has revolutionized sending money to any CNIC number across the country. Users can transfer funds instantly and conveniently to any CNIC number across Pakistan anytime, anywhere, even to people who do not have a bank account. With the largest retailer footprint of more than 189,000 registered agents across the country, Easypaisa is the pioneer of introducing peer-to-peer OTC payments in Pakistan, the first step of banking innovation. With Easypaisa, users can transfer money to any valid CNIC irrespective of whether the person at the receiving end has an Easypaisa account or not.

The receiver can easily withdraw funds through Easypaisa’s widespread agent network of over 189,000 registered agents across Pakistan, or alternatively signup on the Easypaisa App, create an account within minutes and utilize the funds through 50 + use cases available on the platform. Easypaisa has launched a very relatable campaign on situations where money transfer becomes an absolute necessity especially when people do not have convenient modes of access to funds available to them. The DVC shows a story of a domestic staff who has ended up in his village and wants emergency funds- received from his employer.

Employer tries to get the funds to his staff but is unable to because the receiver does not have an active bank account. Finally, the employer asks his staff to share his CNIC number, he then transfers money to his staff’s cnic via the Easypaisa App, through which funds are received instantly.

The domestic staff is then seen thanking his boss. Easypaisa’s core payment feature, Mobile Account to CNIC payments use case has been beautifully depicted in this DVC. After leading the way in Pakistan’s digital payments landscape, Easypaisa continues to create an immersive experience for its users through creative and out-of-the-box advertising.

 

Lahore (Nut Desk)

OPPO has revealed superstar Mahira Khan and Fawad Khan as its new Brand Ambassadors for 2022. OPPO, ranked among the leading mobile phone manufacturers of the world, announced this exciting new partnership with the acclaimed artists. The duo will be seen spearheading innovative new products and activities including F21 Pro launch. The phone is anticipated to get people’s attention for eye-catching sunset orange fiberglass leather design.

Remarking on the ambassadorship, Mahira Khan said, “I am thrilled to be working with OPPO. The brands commitment to innovation and connection is one that I relate to and I look forward to showcasing their outstanding new products”.

Alongside announcing these two highly charismatic celebrities as the Brand Ambassadors, OPPO Pakistan is also excited to announce the fantastic OPPO F21 Pro.

OPPO has further leveled-up the ‘A’ game with the very creative yet promised slogan ‘Fantastic Selfie, Fantastic Style’ for its upcoming OPPO F21 Pro.

The OPPO F series smartphones of today are very different from those of the past, but one constant has been OPPO’s desire to innovate. The F series has come a long way since its debut, with additions including smart design and VOOC charge technology as well as massive improvements in the quality of its camera, display, and playfully unique colors and design.

With its new OPPO F21 Pro smartphone, OPPO, one of the pioneers of the selfie movement, aims to continue the trend. With so many selfie-centric phones in the market, it’s obvious to see why OPPO dubs itself as the “Selfie Expert and Leader.” The company has been in the selfie game for a long time and has no plans of slowing down.

A technological feat in the midrange price bracket, the OPPO F21 Pro puts the focus on industry’s first fiberglass-leather design and processing, with the flat-edge design, leatherette and sunset orange is the must have fashion elements. The gorgeous sunset orange will be the new trend in Ramadan. The OPPO F21 Pro known as the “Fantastic” phone is an amalgamation of technical advancements coupled with a vibrant style and chic design that will set users apart from the crowd. The official launch for the OPPO F21 Pro is set to take place on April 11, 2022.