Zubair Qureshi
The Enterprise Challenge Pakistan has announced winners of the National Final Award for Young Entrepreneurs and according to the results, team From Abbottabad won the National Final Award with their business idea of making printed materials accessible to the visually impaired.
Each year Prince’s Trust International, in partnership with Seed Ventures, celebrates the achievements of young people in Pakistan. The awards were hosted by the British High Commissioner, Ms Jane Marriott and the event featured 7 promising start-up ideas selected from regional competitions held throughout the country.
At the end of the ceremony, prizes were announced in various categories celebrating innovation, climate friendliness, financial viability and impact.
Prince’s Trust International’s global research into the future of work showed that a quarter of young people in Pakistan are interested in entrepreneurship for their career.
The overall winning team, Roshni pitched the idea of making printed materials for the visually impaired including education book and a braille transcription service. The team members were also awarded the category of Most Impactful (Social-Inclusion).
Enterprise Challenge Pakistan is the premier platform for aspiring entrepreneurs in the country and has been described by Forbes as one of the ‘five leading global programmes supporting the next generation’.
During the events, Sara from Karachi was presented with the award for Global Young Achiever – Asia 2023 for her ingenious business idea of plantable pencils.
While congratulating the award winners, British High Commissioner Jane Marriott said, “These extraordinary individuals should be proud of their efforts to drive entrepreneurship and increase their sense of social and environmental responsibility. It’s exactly why we must empower more young people to do so, and I commend Enterprise Challenge Pakistan for pushing that forward.”
On the occasion, Global Young Achiever Award Winner Sara said, “Enterprise Challenge Pakistan really opened up my mind and allowed me to realize that I can contribute to society and become self-sufficient.”
ShabirRanderee, Prince’s Trust International Chair was of the view that having seen the impact of the Enterprise Challenge for a number of years in the UK, and now overseas, it is always fascinating to see the profound impact it has on young people to consider a path of entrepreneurship. Having taken this path myself, I can highly recommend it.”
CEO of SEED Ventures Shaista Ayesha, said, “We want to create more job creators than job seekers, and so over the next five years, we aim for 30,000 young people across all demographics of Pakistan to participate in the entrepreneurship challenge.”
