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Estarta just participated in the WISE EMEA FY24 celebratory fireside chat. Read more about it here by scrolling. So, without further ado, check it all out below!

WISE EMEA Overview

Hiba Odeh, the Director of Operations: AMM-TAC at Estarta, took part in the WISE EMEA FY24 Celebration fireside chat. The event, held on July 18th, highlighted the crucial themes of allyship and advocacy for women in the workplace. Moreover, it was particularly on the less privileged areas of Jordan. This celebration served as a platform to promote women’s participation and advancement in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.

Allyship and Advocacy

The fireside chat provided a deep dive into what allyship means in today’s professional landscape. Hiba Odeh, along with other distinguished speakers, shared many insights. Plus, on top of that, they emphasized the importance of allyship in creating an inclusive and supportive work environment. Furthermore, the discussion covered various aspects, including:

• Understanding Allyship: The fundamental concepts of allyship and its role in creating a more inclusive workplace.
• Importance of Advocacy: Strategies to advocate effectively for women, ensuring their voices are heard and their contributions recognized.
• Actionable Steps: Practical actions that individuals and organizations can take to drive impactful allyship and advocacy.

Estarta and Women in ICT

One of the event’s key focuses was promoting women in the ICT sector. In regions like Jordan, women often face additional barriers to entering and advancing in this field. Thus, initiatives like WISE (Women in Science and Engineering) are vital. Ms. Odeh discussed the challenges and opportunities for women in ICT. Moreover, these points highlighted success stories, female representation percentages, and ongoing efforts to support women’s careers in technology. Specifically, in terms of female representation, Estarta stands at an impressive 46%.

The conversation also shed light on the specific challenges faced by women in less privileged areas. The speakers explored ways to provide these women with the necessary resources, education, and support to succeed in the ICT industry. By addressing these disparities, the WISE EMEA initiative aims to create a more equitable and prosperous future for all women in the sector.

Final Thoughts

Hiba Odeh’s participation in the WISE EMEA FY24 Celebration underscores Estarta’s commitment to supporting and empowering women in the workplace. Furthermore, it particularly goes for that in the ICT field. Through allyship and advocacy, we can collectively work towards a more inclusive and diverse industry, ensuring that all women have the opportunity to thrive.

Stay tuned for more updates on our initiatives and join us in celebrating the achievements of women in ICT! For more, head over to Estarta’s news blog. Also, stay informed on our social media channels. These include Instagram and Twitter (X).

As part of its efforts to engage university students and empower the new generations with the needed knowledge and skills within the fintech industry, Jordan Payments and Clearing Company (JoPACC) through its JOIN Fincubator will be holding a one-of-a-kind fintech competition where university students will be working on developing and presenting innovative solutions to enhance the current services on CliQ.

The “Fintech Rally” competition follows a series of engaging training sessions and workshops. These informative events, conducted by experts from JoPACC, Technology Strategies Middle East, and Software AG, focus on highlighting essential topics:

• ReactJS Training
• React Native Training
• Business Process Engine Training
• Application Programming Interface (API) Training
• CliQ and JoMoPay Overview

120 students, forming 24 teams from 10 universities across Jordan, will participate in this three-day hackathon to come up with new innovative solutions to enhance the one of the services available on CliQ.

By the end of this competition, all participating teams will pitch their solutions to a jury panel of esteemed industry experts and market leaders, who will evaluate the solutions and decide on the winning teams.

This Fintech Rally is organized in collaboration with Technology Strategies Middle East, which will hold sessions throughout the hackathon to mentor, guide, and direct the students toward building the right processes and solutions.

It is worth noting that JoPACC has recently extended its partnership with TSME for another five years. This renewal comes following the successful collaboration over the past two years, particularly through the establishment of the Future Fintech Disruptors Academy, which was designed to target university students and junior banking employees to empower them with essential fintech knowledge and the latest technologies to bridge the gap between academia and the workforce landscape aiming to cultivate industry leaders among banking employees and contribute to the advancement of the fintech ecosystem in Jordan.

The Innovative Startups and SMEs Fund (ISSF), Jordan’s largest investment fund of its kind, has announced an increase in its commitment to Oasis Ventures II fund “OVII” managed by Oasis500 from $3 million to $5 million.

Oasis500 focuses strategically on empowering early-stage ICT companies in Jordan through pre-seed and seed funding. To date, These portfolio companies have collectively secured an impressive $27 million in external financing.

Mohammed Al Muhtaseb, CEO of ISSF, stated: “Oasis500’s role in the MENA region’s early-stage investment scene is pivotal. Established in 2010 as the first accelerator, they helped ignite the Jordanian and MENA startup ecosystems.
Our increased commitment to OVII reflects our confidence in Oasis500’s success. By providing them with more firepower, we are doubling down on that success, so they can double down on the winners in their portfolio.”

Luma Fawaz, CEO of Oasis500, added, “Oasis500 and the ISSF share a vision that makes them excellent partners. Through this partnership, we have invested in and supported 36 startups, 36% of which are led by female founders. Our economic impact is significant, having created 300 direct and 1,000 indirect jobs.

Notably, for every $1 we invested, we mobilized $5 for our portfolio startups. With the additional investment from ISSF, we will double down on some of our top performers”

The CEO of Orange Jordan, Philippe Mansour has appointed Eng. Sami Smeirat as Deputy CEO in addition to maintaining his current duties as the Chief Enterprise Officer.

This strategic step came amidst transitions on the leadership level that Orange Jordan has announced recently.These transitions included the appointment of Raslan Deiranieh as a member of the Board of Directors of Jordan Telecom Company- Orange Jordan effective July, succeeding His Excellency Dr. Shabib Ammari. Moreover, Mohammad Abu AlGhanam was appointed as Chief Financial Officer.

These transitions and new appointments testify to Orange Jordan’s constant endeavors and strategic vision that aim to elevate the performance by unleashing the competencies of its workforce on all levels. It showcases how the company commits to executing its future plans complying with the local, regional, and global contexts and meeting the accelerating changes on the digital front.

Eng.Smeirat holds two Master Degrees; in Business Administration from New York University of Information Technology (NYIT) and in Telecommunications Engineering. He has occupied the position of CEO of Jordan Data Communication Company Ltd, since 2007, in addition to the position of Chief Enterprise Officer at Orange Jordan through which he spared no effort to provide advanced and high-quality services to the business sector in Jordan allowing it to achieve technology-enabled excellence.

Over the course of his outstanding journey Eng.Smeirat accomplished multiple milestones that added value and significantly contributed to Orange Jordan’s vision and mission. In this context, he held the position of CEO of Wanadoo in 2003 until its rebranding to become Orange. Before that, he led Global Ones, later went under rebranding becoming Wanadoo, to be the exclusive distributor of the global telecom company EyeQuant.

It is worth mentioning that Eng.Smeirat has held important leadership positions through which he achieved great successes, including the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Petra Mobile Payment Services Company, serving as member of the Board of Directors of Cairo Amman Bank, International Data Center Authority, Sodetel Lebanon, Board of Trustees of Princess Sumaya University for Technology, in addition to the position of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Nippon-Jordan Fertilizer Company (NJFC), member of the Board of Directors of Edamah Company, and recently appointed as a representative of the Social Security Corporation on the Board of Directors of the Jordan Phosphate Mines Company.

For more information, please visit our website: www.orange.jo.

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About Orange Jordan

Orange Jordan is one of the subsidiaries of Orange Global Group, which is present in 26 countries around the world. Orange Jordan operates in line with the Group’s strategy “Lead the Future”, and through its positioning as a Responsible Digital Leader, it supports the national digital transformation vision. Orange Jordan prioritizes community service, and in this context, it implements a comprehensive CSR strategy that revolves around 4 pillars including digital education, digital inclusion, entrepreneurship, climate and environment.

Orange Jordan, with more than 1600 employees in 301 shops and locations across Jordan, strives to provide the best customer experience through an integrated set of digital solutions including fixed, mobile, internet, data, and Smart Life Solutions to around 4.1 million customers in Jordan.

Orange Jordan’s solutions are comprehensive as they serve businesses in addition to individuals under its sub brand Orange Business.

Orange Jordan inspires by its values namely transparency, agility, results-oriented, customer centricity, collaboration, caring, and excellence.

To learn more about us, please visit our website: www.orange.jo

About Orange

Orange is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with revenues worth 39.7 billion euros in 2023 and 129,500 employees worldwide until 31 March 2024, including 72,500 employees in France. The Group has a total of 282 million customers worldwide until 31 March 2024, including 243 million mobile customers and 21 million fixed broadband customers. The Group is present in 26 countries. Orange is also a leading provider of global IT and telecommunication services to multinational companies under the brand Orange Business. In February 2023, the Group presented its strategic plan “Lead the Future”, built on a new business model and guided by responsibility and efficiency. “Lead the Future” capitalizes on network excellence to reinforce Orange’s leadership in service quality.

Orange is listed on Euronext Paris (symbol ORA) and on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol ORAN).

For more information on the internet and on your mobile: www.orange.com, www.orange-business.com and the Orange News app or to follow us on Twitter: @orangegrouppr, and the Orange News app or to follow us on Twitter: @orangegrouppr.

Orange and any other Orange’s product or service names included in this material are trademarks of Orange or Orange Brand Services Limited.