The conference was held under the theme ‘Creating and Sustaining Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs’ and sought to examine the multiple facets of female entrepreneurship, particularly its social dimension.
The financial forum dissected the key topics of ‘Women’s Entrepreneurship and Finance’, ‘Managing Finances for Growth and Sustainability’, ‘Pathways to Growth beyond Microfinance’ and ‘Credit Literacy and Financial Self-Efficacy’.
Discussions were led by Ernst & Young Partner Anoji de Silva, Sarvodaya Development Finance and Capital Media Chairman Channa De Silva, Sanasa Development Bank Chairperson Samadanie Kiriwandeniya and IFC Senior Financial Sector Specialist Rathnija Arandara.
The forum was moderated by Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) Country Manager Zahara Ansary.
“We were delighted to host such a crucial session of the event which so effectively facilitated the exchange of deep insights on the financial aspect of female entrepreneurship.
We were able to maximise our contribution to this effort by encouraging the attendance of HNB FINANCE customers whose feedback about the forum’s outcomes was overwhelmingly positive,” said HNB FINANCE Managing Director and CEO Chaminda Prabhath.
“Women’s financial empowerment is a critical component of our service strategy and many of our products are designed to encourage entrepreneurship within this key segment.
Our efforts to host this forum represent another major step in this continual journey and I would like to thank everyone from HNB FINANCE who played a major role in making the event a success.”
The ICWE is part of the International Conference on Social Entrepreneurship (ICSE) series of conferences, organised by the Colombo School of Business and Management (CSBM).
Each year, CSBM organises a conference under a different theme as part of the ICSE series, with previous conferences structured around themes such as ‘Green Entrepreneurship’ and ‘Social Innovations for Development’.
Established in 2000, HNB FINANCE Limited is licensed as a registered Finance Company by the Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
Maintaining an extensive island-wide presence across 48 branches and 21 service centres, HNB FINANCE has over the recent past expanded into new fields of business and now offers Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) loans in addition to savings, gold loans, education loans, home loans, personal loans, fixed deposit facilities and leasing products.
HNB FINANCE is a subsidiary of HNB PLC.