WCIC launches ‘Women Entrepreneur Awards 2025’

From left:  Ramani Ponnambalam - 1st Vice Chairperson WCIC, Chathuri Munaweera - Director/ Chief Executive Officer AIA Sri Lanka, Gayani de Alwis – Chairperson WCIC, Tusitha Kumarakulasingam - Co-Chairperson - WEA 25 WCIC and Oshadhi Karunaratne - Co-Chairperson - WEA 25 WCIC

PIC BY KITHSIRI DE MEL

The Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce (WCIC) announced the launch of its annual flagship event “WCIC Prathibhabhisheka – Women Entrepreneur Awards 2025” to recognize and reward the outstanding women entrepreneurs of Sri Lanka and in the SAARC Region. 

WCIC once again invites outstanding women entrepreneurs, to share their story of resilience and achievements to compete for the coveted - WCIC Prathibhabhisheka – The Women Entrepreneur Awards 2025, at the ceremony to be held in January 2026. 

The Awards Ceremony will honour women entrepreneurs for their tenacity to scale and grow, for their contribution and the impact on the  Sri Lankan economy. Whilst the competition is primarily for Sri Lankan women Entrepreneurs, we provide the opportunity for women entrepreneurs in the SAARC region to compete under the special category.  

“Being the National Chamber for Women in Business we conduct our efforts in a sustainable, effective and ethical manner, our efforts are audited throughout. The many successful women who carried the coveted Prathibhasheka Awards have endorsed the value it has created for them personally and their businesses. ” stated Gayani De Alwis, the Chairperson of the WCIC. 

On behalf of the organizing committee, the Co–Chairs, Oshadi Somasinghe and Tusitha Kumarakulasingam, shared the following sentiments. 

“Year-on-year WCIC Prathibhabhisheka gathers thrust and we are elated with the traction this amazing project has gained. We are extremely excited to conduct this National initiative to honour, women entrepreneurs across the country. 

The momentum has been established and we are aware entrepreneurs of different scaleseagerly await to be a part of this journey. We will be accepting applications under the categories – Start-Up, Micro, Small, Medium and Large. Each category will have a specified revenue for the year under review – 2024/2025. Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards will be presented for each category. 

Being true to our impact as the National Entrepreneur Awards, we seek participation from regional women entrepreneurs, participants across the 9 provinces are expected to participate just like in the previous years. “Best of the Province” is awarded to the outstanding of the applications, from each province.

The  shortlisted women entrepreneurs  will also be considered for the coveted special awards - Young Woman Entrepreneur, Outstanding Start-Up, The Woman of Courage, The Most Outstanding Export Oriented Entrepreneur (Product and Services) and The Best of the SAARC Region, Digital Entrepreneur, Most Innovative Entrepreneur and The Social Entrepreneur for 2025.The ceremony will culminate with the “The Woman Entrepreneur of the Year – 2025.”