Iqra University plans to create 25,000 jobs and 2,500 startups in the next 10 years.
The university has a fund of half a million dollars in venture capital to assist its student entrepreneurs and young start-ups in growing their businesses.
This announcement was made at a virtual online launch of Iqra University’s Business Incubation Centre held on Saturday.
The inauguration saw panel discussions about the challenges young entrepreneurship face including copyrights, seed financing and the importance of venture capital investors for pioneers.
“Our Business Incubation Centre’s vision is to change the lives of people. By supporting young businesses through their early and fragile stages of growth, we believe that our fund, as well as our technical expertise and physical facilities, will create a domino effect on the incubation and startup space,” said Dr Wasim Qazi, the vice-chancellor of Iqra University.
Panellists at the launch event included Zouhair Khaliq, member of the Prime Minister’s Task Force on IT and Telecom; Jehan Ara, founder and CEO Katalyst Lab; Asim Sheryar, CEO Ignite, Misbah Naqvi, co-founder Invest 2 Innovate; Omer Ghani, head of commercialization and startups HEC; Omer Abedin, director National Incubation Centre; and Zeeshan Hasib Baig, CEO Careem
“The Incubation Centre is going to be working at the very intersection of innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship. Pakistan has a creative and entrepreneurial youth that needs to flourish. We plan to be there for just that, by helping our youth improve their skills, increase their access to finance and markets, and foster their sustainable growth.” said Dr Wasim Qazi.
According to a 2019 global entrepreneurship survey conducted by Gallup Pakistan, 55% of people from Pakistan agreed that there were good opportunities for starting a business in their area.