A Success Story of Women Entrepreneurship from Bahrain: Huda Janhani

The subject of entrepreneurship has a lot of challenges in its journey, but when we talk about Women entrepreneurship the challenges gets increased several folds.

We at SMEStreet, unfolded some great success stories and this time we are proud to bring a women entrepreneur success story from Middle East. Meet Ms Huda Janahi from Bahrain who recently visited India and explored avenues for business prospects and she shared insights from her experiences with Faiz Askari of SMEStreet.

Since 2001, Ms Huda Janahi has served in the Investment Promotion & Enterprise Development Program. The program is conducted by UNIDO-ITPO Bahrain or the Bahrain Model of Investment Promotion & Enterprise Creation, through its Arab Regional Center for Entrepreneurship and Investment Training (ARCEIT). From there, she worked to establish a business in cargo services, which is typically a male dominated business worldwide.

Ms Janahi has received several recognition for the kind of work she did in Middle East. She won the Mohammed bin Rashid Award for Young Business Leaders in 2005; the “2006 Investor of the Year Award,” from the Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development and Her Highness Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa; the “GCC Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award” in Oman in 2008 and one of the most powerful Arab women by Forbes magazine the same year.

Here are the edited excerpts of the exclusive interaction:

How is your trip to India?

India is a wonderful country with great potential. We are here to explore the avenues of doing business with Indian companies. We are witnessing great examples of Indian entrepreneurship and we are looking forward to exchange avenues to work with Indian companies.

As a Women Entrepreneur, what are you observations from India? According to you how is the women entrepreneur scenario in India?

Indian society is open, progressive as well it has strong traditional values, all of this makes it a very interesting place for women entrepreneurship. We have met great women entrepreneurs and we have also experienced a strong action in the women entrepreneurship domain. Indian Women are dynamic, progressive and very hard working. These are some important requirements of entrepreneurship.

Being part of a shipping industry, how is your experience as a women entrepreneur? Specialy this segment is dominated by men?  

I never experienced any problem or a challenge as a women being part of the transport, cargo and shipping industry. In the entrepreneurship, it’s the commitment that matters. We are committed towards our industry and we understand the requirements of the industry.

What are the key challenges that you faced as an entrepreneur?

There were some common challenges, which usually come across while setting up any new business. We managed to successfully handle those challenges in the initial business days. Now, its been close to seven years, now we are setting our plans for further expansion.