Ignite plans its 6th NIC in Faisalabad. Ignite National Technology Fund signed an agreement with University of Agriculture, Faisalabad for its sixth National Incubation Center to be launched in Faisalabad by next year. The agreement was signed by CEO Ignite, Asim Shahryar Husain and Vice Chancellor, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Dr. Iqrar Ahmad Khan.
The signing ceremony was also attended by Federal Secretary for IT & Telecom, Dr. Muhammad Sohail Rajput and officials of IT ministry, Ignite, and UAF. CEO Ignite stated that Faisalabad is the third largest city of Pakistan and is the agricultural and textile hub of the country with a contribution of around $20 billion to Pakistan’s economy. So it was natural for Ignite and its board to decide to launch the next incubator in Faisalabad. He said that the focus of the incubator will be on agritech startups which can come up with ICT-based solutions for improving productivity and efficiency of the country’s agriculture and textile sectors.
He said that Ignite will launch its 7th incubator in Hyderabad also by next year. Vice Chancellor, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Dr. Iqrar Ahmad Khan stated that the university has many research labs related to agriculture and textile. Also, many researchers have conducted research on new ideas and products related to agriculture.
However, they have not been able to commercialize those products because of lack of a proper incubator with mentoring and networking services for guiding such projects. He said that Ignite’s NIC will fill this gap and will help in boosting productivity of many agriculture related products in the country.
Federal Secretary for IT & Telecom, Dr. Muhammad Sohail Rajput, congratulated Ignite and University of Agriculture, Faisalabad on signing the agreement and hoped that this partnership will be the beginning of a successful journey for the startups of Faisalabad. He said that Pakistan, being an agricultural country, should focus on leveraging technology for improving productivity of the agricultural and textile sectors.
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The ceremony was also attended by Syed Junaid Imam, Member IT, MoITT, Dr. Shahid Qureshi, Director IBA and Dr. Ijaz Bhatti from UAF.
