News and Events

IUIU Participates at SEE Pakistan 2023 - The Largest Entrepreneurial Expo in Pakistan

• 29th August, 2023 2:00pm
• 3 minutes read

The Islamic University in Uganda (IUIU) participated in the SEE Pakistan Entrepreneurial Exhibition held on 23^rd to 27^th August 2023, in Lahore, Pakistan. IUIU was represented by Dr. Umar Yahya, the Head of the Motion Analysis Research Laboratory (MARL). The Expo is Pakistan’s largest and is held annually. The event involves identifying and rewarding Pakistan’s best 3 promising startups, as a practical mechanism to foster innovation and entrepreneurship. This year’s event included participation from Educators and Startups of 26 other countries, including Uganda. A total of 100 local startups were selected to present at the exhibition finale held on 26^th August, out of over 1,000 entries received from all over Pakistan. A total of 15 startups and several Educators were nominated to take part in this event, including IUIU’s MARL, out of over 100 entries received from outside Pakistan.

The Expo included a 2-day intensive Bootcamp-based training for the startups' group of participants, as well as a parallel 2-day International Summit for Entrepreneurial Educators. The Summit involved intensive practical learning sessions on how to build an institutionalised entrepreneurial ecosystem in higher education institutions. “This was truly a rewarding learning experience. Through this summit, it became clear that nearly the world over, academia is struggling to realize entrepreneurship as the eventual outcome of their research and innovation outputs. The intensive training received during this summit will facilitate our efforts as IUIU, in realizing this desired outcome.  Universities are expected to contribute to the Economic growth of their host countries, and without an entrepreneurial mindset and entrepreneurship, this will simply remain a dream”, shared Dr Yahya Umar.

Beyond the immediate benefits of this Summit and the Exhibition, as a result of our participation at this Expo, IUIU is in the coming weeks going to finalise an MoU with the Superior University of Pakistan, the host and main facilitator of the International Summit for Entrepreneurial Educators. Superior University is currently ranked Pakistan’s Number 1 University in terms of delivering Quality Education as a result of the jobs and businesses created by their graduates over the last 7 years. “Having an MoU with Superior University in place is going to avail IUIU the opportunity to learn from their Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Model and be able to customize it to our settings. Our partners from COMSTECH have in principle agreed to our proposal to hold a series of joint activities within the Alliance of African Muslim Universities in the near future, in a bid to ignite and foster the entrepreneurship mindset”, adds Dr Yahya Umar.

The other participant from Uganda was the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Kampala University, Dr Wardah Rajab Gyagenda. IUIU is grateful to COMSTECH, for the invitation and sponsorship of our participant at the Expo.