The Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce (WCIC) is calling for committed women entrepreneurs to apply for the prestigious ‘Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Awards’.

In its ninth year, the awards ceremony will crown highflyers from a wide spectrum of industries in Micro, Small, Medium and Large categories. In addition, the WCIC has ventured into new horizons with this year’s theme ‘Ignite…Influence….Change’ to recognize more women under three new categories. The new categories reaches a wider scope by honouring ‘Woman Exporter of the Year’, ‘Most Promising Young Entrepreneur’ and the ‘Best Female Start-Up Enterprise’.  Business owners with a minimum of three years experience and start-up founders, who have been in business for a year, are eligible to apply for the awards under their respective categories.

Entrepreneurs can obtain applications from the WCIC secretariat or download the form from its website www.wcicsl.lk. With the closing date for the applications drawing to a close on June 20, 2016, WCIC Chairperson Rifa Musthapha requested the entrepreneurs to send in their applications soon.  

An esteemed and independent panel of judges will evaluate the applications.   
Commenting on the Awards Musthapaha said, “Our previous winners have gone on to become successful business leaders. And we believe that the visibility they gained on this stage played a role in their respective success stories. We urge enterprising women to apply for this year’s Entrepreneur Awards and gain the recognition that they well-deserve for their hard work and unbridled spirit.” 
The award ceremony will take place on August 5 this year with President Maithripala Sirisena as the chief guest at the event.

Musthapha further added, “Women make up 52 percent of Sri Lanka’s population and it is imperative that as a country we encourage women to become business leaders in their own right and become an integral part of the business landscape and foster sustainable economic growth. 

During the past few years, the WCIC has taken an active role in shaping the Sri Lankan business landscape to be more inclusive of women. One such attempt bore fruit as the Sri Lankan budget proposal of 2015-16 introduced a step to direct banks to lend 5 percent of their total loan portfolio to women micro, small and medium enterprises. 

Musthapha went on to note that 80 percent of Sri Lanka’s economy is supported by small and medium enterprises (SMEs), of which only 10 percent are women SMEs. 
“There is potential for growth here. Especially as we’ve found out, women are better paymasters when compared to their male counterparts.” 

The WCIC uses its Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Awards platform to shine the light on outstanding achievements of women entrepreneurs. Previous winners of the awards have become inspirational and replicable role models to all aspiring women entrepreneurs. Some of the past winners include Yolanda Aluwihare, owner and head designer of internationally acclaimed ‘Yoland Collection’, Janaki Davi Kathriarachchi, proprietor of Three Star Organic Farms, and Orency Siriwardhene, founder of Sugar Frill Cakes.