Karachi, 30 April 2025: Standard Chartered and The British Asian Trust have announced to renew their partnership and are thrilled to launch ‘Thriving Futures’, a three-year enterprise development programme that will focus on providing support to high-potential youth microenterprises to help build their capacity and attain long-term sustainability.
The previous programme enabled us to empower over 1000 young women and men to boost and sustain their Agri-enterprises by focusing on enterprise growth, marketing, quality assurance, digital literacy training which helped to increase the enterprise revenues by 25% on average. Building on learnings from the past programme, ‘Thriving Futures’ will offer advanced enterprise development and tailored interventions to 900 microenterprise groups (90% of which will be women-led) to become thriving and, in doing so, create a stronger, more inclusive microenterprise ecosystem in Sindh and Punjab. The British Asian Trust will deliver the programme in conjunction with two implementing partners – Kaarvan Crafts Foundation and Shirakat.
Kamyla Marvi, Pakistan Director of the British Asian Trust said: “We are proud to continue our partnership with Standard Chartered Foundation through the launch of Thriving Futures. Having previously worked together to support entrepreneurs in agricultural settings, this new programme reflects our shared and continued commitment to creating sustainable livelihood opportunities for more women and youth-led enterprises across Sindh and Punjab. Through our interventions we aim to enable economic resilience, promote access to finance and increase market access.”
Rehan Shaikh, CEO & Head of Coverage, SC Pakistan stated, “Standard Chartered’s
partnership with the British Asian Trust for the launch of Thriving Futures programme, a new
three-year initiative that will enrich over 900 microenterprises, create positive social impact,
and create sustainable livelihoods. This partnership reflects our dedication to supporting
entrepreneurs with the tools and resources they need to succeed and thrive.”