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Empowering Women agripreneurs with digital financial services

 

 

Zubaida, a mother of four, is one of the many women agripreneurs empowered with digital financial services by Nestlé Pakistan. “I have been supplying milk to Nestlé for the last four years. Earlier, I had to travel long distance to collect my weekly milk payments from the Milk Collection Centre and it was very time consuming. Ever since I’ve registered for a mobile wallet, receiving payments has become very convenient. Now when Nestlé sends the milk payment, I just receive an SMS notification on my mobile phone and collect it from the nearest agent, which is right around the corner in my village. I only withdraw the money I want to utilize and save the remaining in my mobile wallet. This service is a great relief”, said Zubaida.

In collaboration with Telenor Bank (previously known as Tameer Bank) and Habib Bank Limited, Nestlé Pakistan has registered more than 7,000 small dairy farmers and has disbursed more than PKR 131 million in milk payments via mobile wallets.

Nestlé Pakistan is committed to social and economic equity for the dairy farming community, with a focus on empowering women in rural areas. This enables the setting up of profitable and sustainable micro-businesses. Further capacity building is encouraged through training and non-formal education through our milk collection and dairy development team.

In line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we have developed a number of initiatives that promote training and professional development for women along our supply chain. We recognize that women face real challenges in the developing world, including access to financial resources, knowledge and training. Nestlé Pakistan’s different training programs generates further income for small farmers and employment for both rural men and women. We believe diversity in our business and throughout our supply chain.

In 2017, approximately 5,000 rural women were trained on Best Farm Practices through village meetings. Moreover, the program builds capacity to better support women entrepreneurs to start and grow their businesses. 11 entrepreneurs were developed through this program, while over 125 female milk suppliers were also made a part of Nestlé’s milk collection value chain.