Vanithabhimana National Competition Reaches all 9 Provinces

by Staff Writer 10-02-2022 | 10:31 AM

Sri Lanka Vanithabhimana National Competition Reaches all 9 Provinces across the Country

On the road to empower our Sri Lankan Women on a National level NDB Bank together with Sirasa NewsFirst held nine provincial level women’s day workshops during the past few months, conducted under strict COVID-19 guidelines issued by the Health ministry.

Accordingly, Vanithabhimana 2021 Women’s Day workshop program kicked off in Kurunegala for the North Western Province, followed by separate full day programs in Sabaragamuwa, Northern, Uva, Central, Southern, Western and North Central provinces. The most recent Women’s Day workshop was held in Batticaloa covering the Eastern Province.

Over 25 workshops were conducted in total, covering a variety of areas such as Self-employment & Entrepreneurship, Cookery and Beauty culture. Each participant received a valuable certificate upon completion.

The Sri Lanka Vanithabhimana Provincial Competition jointly presented by Sirasa Newsfirst & NDB Bank, is conducted to recognize female achievers across the country in ten categories. Over 3,000 participants from across the country attended the programs and took part in the competition.

The categories included entrepreneurship (Small Scale), entrepreneurship (Micro Scale), entrepreneurship (upcoming), Young leader, Environmental Management, Sports, Volunteer Services, Invention & Innovation with Literature and Education Services included this year as new categories.

NDB has always been at the forefront of assisting entrepreneurs while also helping women in particular to achieve greater heights and successfully overcome traditional norms and barriers.

The immense contributions made by women to the economy of the country and to other domains go largely unrecognized. It is mainly to address this shortcoming as well as to encourage more and more women to come forward in economic and social activity that NDB Bank introduced this endeavour under its "Araliya" Banking on Women Initiative. The Bank together with Sirasa News First hopes to celebrate, reward and recognize the contribution made by outstanding women in their relevant areas of expertise.

The Sri Lanka Vanithaabhimana program will be held under the NDB Araliya umbrella where all NDB female entrepreneurs can enjoy a number of banking facilities available including Araliya Business Loans (for Capital expenditure, Working Capital and for day-to-day operational expenses), Araliya Credit Card, Araliya Current Account, Araliya Savings Account, Araliya Debit Card, Working Capital facilities (**Subject to prevailing credit criteria of the Bank), Preferential interest rates, Insurance Schemes (Life Cover & hospitalization benefits) as well as Non-financial Services under Araliya Umbrella, all with the aim of empowering female entrepreneurs in their endeavors.

These female entrepreneurs will also have access to Araliya Knowledge Sharing Forums, Araliya Mentoring & networking sessions, third-party advisory services (e.g. process of

business registration, book keeping, etc.) as well as a special Certification program on Small Business Management.

The Vanithabhimana program was also recognized with the “Positive Media Campaign for the Empowerment of Women” award at the 11th “Top 50 Professional & Career Women Awards – Eleventh Edition” Sri Lanka & Maldives – under the Organizational Category. The awards organized by Women in Management (WIM) and International Finance Corporation under the IFC-DFAT Women in Work program, highlight and honor women in the national and regional economy and celebrate their achievements.

NDB Bank was awarded the “Best Digital Bank 2021” at the Asiamoney Best Bank Awards for Sri Lanka in addition to being crowned "Sri Lanka’s Best Bank 2021" by the prestigious Global Finance Magazine of USA, and "The Bank of the Year Sri Lanka", by The Banker Magazine UK. NDB is the 4th largest listed bank in Sri Lanka and the parent company of the NDB Group. The only financial services conglomerate in Sri Lanka, NDB Group is uniquely positioned towards assisting the growth and development of the Sri Lankan financial market to provide its customers seamless access to the product and service offerings of all its group companies.