Women entrepreneurs who presented their projects for the National Women Entrepreneurs Award 2024 received, on Tuesday 19 March 2024, their participation certificates during an official ceremony held at the National Women Development Centre in Phoenix. This event was organised by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Welfare in collaboration the National Women Entrepreneur Council (NWEC).
The Minister of Gender Equality and Family Welfare, Mrs Kalpana Devi Koonjoo-Shah; the Chairperson of the NWEC, Mrs Françoise Marechal; and other personalities were present on this occasion.
In her address, Minister Koonjoo-Shah highlighted that the competition aims at encouraging women to develop entrepreneurship skills. She thus commended all participants for their projects, and remarked that women entrepreneurs greatly contribute to the socio-economic development of the country.
Government, she underlined, lays much emphasis on the development of the human capital of our country, since Mauritius does not have natural resources. As such, the empowerment of women entrepreneurs is amongst Government’s priorities, she reassured.
The Minister also stated that women entrepreneurs have the potential to expand their business at the regional and international level, which will be beneficial for them in the long run. She also called upon them to be financially independent so as to better help sustain their families.
Moreover, she indicated that the NWEC proposes a series of measures to empower women entrepreneurs. She thus encouraged all women to avail of the facilities at their disposal in a bid to further expand their business.
On another note, Minister Koonjoo-Shah stressed on the importance of education and enumerated some of the measures undertaken by Government to ensure that no citizen is left behind.
As for the Chairperson of the NWEC, she dwelt on the numerous initiatives undertaken by the organisation so as to encourage women entrepreneurship and seized this opportunity to commend Minister Koonjoo-Shah and the staff of the Ministry for their support.
It is recalled that a total of 100 women entrepreneurs presented projects for the National Women Entrepreneurs Award 2024, out of which three already received an award during the International Women’s Day. Shields were also presented to nine finalists during the ceremony.