Nilofar Paiwand Ali is part of AKFC's 2025-2026 cohort of International Youth Fellows.
My first memory of entrepreneurship is my father's shop in an open bazaar in Vahdat, Tajikistan.
I was maybe eight years old, watching him negotiate with suppliers, arrange displays, and build something from nothing in a post-Soviet economy that offered very little. I didn't have a word for what he was doing then. I do now.
In June 2025, I graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) with a degree in Business Management, majoring in Global Management Studies – the first in my family to earn a university degree.
I was born in Pakistan, raised in Afghanistan and Tajikistan, and spent my university years organizing business workshops and case competitions for over 4,000 students at TMU's student society.
I never imagined that experience would lead me, just one month later, to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan as a Digital, Innovative & Inclusive Entrepreneurship Fellow at Accelerate Prosperity (AP).
AP is an Aga Khan Development Network initiative and one of Central and South Asia's leading business accelerators providing catalytic investment and technical assistance programs, such as incubation, acceleration, and hackathons.
My professional knowledge of Central Asia's startup ecosystem was limited, though my personal knowledge of the region ran deep — so I was nervous and excited to see how the region has developed economically.
As an Afghan and Dari speaker, one of the most meaningful experiences of my Fellowship was organizing a virtual marketing workshop for Afghan entrepreneurs through AP Afghanistan. Engaging directly with participants underscored how critical skills-based technical assistance is for micro, small, and medium enterprises, even for ones that have been operating for over two decades, as they must continually adapt to shifting global markets. Beyond the work itself, the experience gave me the opportunity to connect with my heritage in a professional capacity and to gain a deeper understanding of what organizations like AP are doing to support entrepreneurs across Central and West Asia, and of the promise that entrepreneurship can bring.
Measuring the Ecosystem at Scale
In October 2025, I travelled to Astana, Kazakhstan, for the Digital Bridge Forum — one of Central Asia's largest technology conferences and a key catalyst for the region's growing startup ecosystem. I was there to support the Demo Day for AP's SlingShot Investment Raising Acceleration Programme, backed by the UK Inclusive Green Development in Central Asia initiative, co-financed by the UK Government and Aga Khan Foundation.
Demo Days are where startup founders pitch to panels of venture capitalists, angel investors, and global ecosystem players. I served at the AP booth speaking with individuals ranging from Kazakh student founders to global startup players and government bodies about AP's regional work and Central Asia's place in the global innovation landscape.
The conversations were energizing, while also highlighting the disproportionate percentage of funding for startups to scale. The numbers tell part of the story: 57 percent of global venture capital funding flows to the United States, while all of Asia, excluding China, receives just 11 percent. Central Asia's founders are building world-class solutions against a significant structural disadvantage. Events like Digital Bridge and organizations like AP are working to close that gap and create market linkages — helping local entrepreneurs reach regional and international audiences who would otherwise never find them.
The Reason Entrepreneurship Exists
On the last day of Digital Bridge, I spoke with a Tajik startup founder, Jahongir, who founded Navbat, a service platform connecting users with companies and specialists in medicine and health, which is also an AP portfolio company. Navbat was borne out of Jahongir's experience from when his daughter fell ill and he could not find a medical specialist in Tajikistan.
Individuals like Jahongir have taken matters into their own hands to build a socially impactful service, and after listening to him pitch to an international audience of investors, I've come to understand the sole purpose of entrepreneurship — creating something new where there was nothing. In regions like Central Asia and Afghanistan, it is also about resilience, dignity, and hope.
I am leaving this Fellowship with far more than professional experience.
I am leaving with a richer understanding of my own roots, a deeper respect for what accessible education and economic opportunity mean, and a clear sense of the work I want to do next. I am excited to carry these lessons into my studies of microenterprises and global development at the University of Sussex — and to keep finding, in the work, reflections of my father's shop in that bazaar in Vahdat.
Nilofar is one of almost 600 young people from Canada who have participated in AKFC’s International Youth Fellowship.
Photos taken by Digital Bridge, Rich Townsend, and Nilofar.