FOREIGN INVESTMENT INDEED AN ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT FOR EXPANSION OF RENEWABLE ENERGY PROJECTS IN PAKISTAN.

Byline: KANWAL SALEEM

Ms Fiza Farhan is CEO-Buksh Foundation and Director-Buksh Energy. She is a passionate progressive and focused professional with a clear vision; who believes in consistent learning.

Ms Fiza Farhan acquired degree in BSc Economics and Finance from Lahore University for Management Sciences (LUMS) and later headed to Warwick Business School for a Master's degree in Entrepreneurship and Business Management as her passion was to create new business models that lead to win-win situations and create most efficient solutions to the dire needs of society.

Belonging from an agricultural family Ms Fiza Farhan had seen the rural areas of Pakistan since childhood which brought her very close to the ground realities borne by the communities.

According to Ms Fiza Farhan the lower tiers in our country are deprived of the basic necessities of life and the masses lie in the low income group and earn less than $2 per day.

Determined to make a change we commenced a journey of "impact investments" which would reap social and financial benefits for the investors and the communities. It all started after we launched Buksh Foundation and Buksh Energy Pvt Ltd in 2009 in order to meet the financial and energy needs of various sectors of the society she added.

She said "Buksh Foundation and Buksh Energy gave me the opportunity to practically implement my resolutions to meet the development sector goals. Through BF and BE I was able to discover myself and my competencies and hone my professional competence towards efficient management of both organizations as CEO-Buksh Foundation and Director-Buksh Energy."

In an interview Ms Fiza Farhan shared her views about different issues particularly energy crisis. Following are details of interview:

PAGE: WHAT IS YOUR COMPANY'S CORE BUSINESS ITS PRESENT FOCUS WITH STRATEGY AND FUTURE TARGETS

FIZA: Buksh Foundation is a micro finance institution with the aim to serve the development sector of Pakistan with a special focus on women. BF aims to provide social and economic empowerment to the impoverished communities living in peri-urban and rural parts of the country through turnkey impact models in order to provide them with better life.

Through micro finance we envision to empower the unbanked macroeconomic change agents in order to create a society in which every individual has equal opportunity and access to a decent living. In order to meet our development sector goals we have partnered with KIVA microfinance based in USA Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) Deutsche Bank NY and State Bank of Pakistan. Further Buksh Foundation has its various initiatives in the development sector of the country of which our most impactful project is Lighting a Million Lives (LaML) through which we aim to light a million lives in 4000 unelectrified villages by 2017. Also Drop of Sun; which is a solar water filtration plant project was initiated for provision of clean drinking water as 44 percent of the population does not have access to clean drinking water. Solar Mobile Charging Station and Solar Home Solutions are adding on projects introduced with the vision to provide feasible sustainable and scalable energy solutions.

Buksh Foundation has a vision to convert rural off grid villages into solar model villages and electrify 4000 villages by 2017. Buksh Energy is a solar energy solution company which is not only catering to the energy needs of the rural off grid areas but also commercial industrial and residential sectors.

BE has emerged as a leading ESCO/Renewable Energy Integrator in the country providing energy solutions across the border -- working on both energy conservation through energy audits/energy efficient appliances as well as energy generation through renewable energy solutions primarily solar -- encapsulating the vast natural resource the country has. The company has partnered with UBL for the first Solar Agri-Finance project in order to ensure access to water to crops for irrigation Solar ATMs have been provided to various commercial banks in order to provide uninterrupted banking experience to bank's clients. Buksh Energy has done its pilot study in Sahiwal for the first Solar Water Filtration Plant which will provide clean drinking water to communities that lack access to safe drinking water.

Solar Home Solution is another model designed by the company to cater to energy needs of unelectrified areas as well as commercial and residential sectors under which solar fans and LED bulbs will be provided for provision of clean energy. The more the energy related problems -- the larger the energy based solutions!

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