Women currently make up approximately 57% of Sri Lanka’s total estimated population of 21 million, with only a mere 33.4% of them making up the total economically active population of 8.5 million persons. This makes women one of the largest under-tapped economic resources.
Today 29% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Sri Lanka is contributed directly by women, against 11% in Pakistan, 18% in India, and 19% in Bangladesh, which puts us generally ahead in the South Asian region. But room for an increase in women entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka remains vast.
However, Sri Lanka is now showing improvement in women participation in one segment, the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME), despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, the Confederation of Micro, Small, and Medium Industries (COSMI) Founder President Nawaz Rajabdeen revealed that the current pandemic has encouraged over 3,500 women entrepreneurs to start their own businesses, a stark contrast from the numbers pre Covid.
“We currently have over 3,500 women entrepreneurs who have registered with us post the first lockdown. This is a massive increase from the 150-170 members we had before Covid entered the economic environment.”
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"We wanted state banks and insurance companies to get involved and support our women entrepreneurs through bank and insurance packages, but we did not see that either " COSMI Founder President Nawaz Rajabdeen[/caption]
According to the Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka has more than one million registered Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), of which 24.8% are women-owned and have more women engaged in MSMEs in other roles.
Rajabdeen attributed this increase to the recent Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the MSME sector signed with local women entrepreneurs. The MoU which was signed on 15 September between COSMI and the FEMpower Women Entrepreneurs Network, is set to benefit the women in the local MSME segment, which makes up around a quarter of the segment.
“The FEMpower Women Entrepreneurs Network plays a commendable role in supporting Sri Lankan women entrepreneurs. Therefore COSMI is pleased to join with them to support Sri Lankan women to achieve their entrepreneurial goals. This collaboration will open the door for women entrepreneurs to acquire the necessary knowledge and know-how,” said Rajabdeen.
During the press event to mark the occasion, he stated that this MoU will solidify their commitment to providing knowledge, skills, information, and linkages to women entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka. Moreover, the event also saw the FEMpower Founder Chamari Gunawardana join the COSMI Board, creating a closer alliance to serve Sri Lankan women entrepreneurs.
Rajabdeen explained that it was COSMI’s mission to revive the industrial sector in Sri Lanka through MSMEs, with a vision to transform Sri Lankan MSMEs into world-class ventures. Therefore, the organisation linking with MSMEs from all 25 districts and women and youth empowerment are a key priority for COSMI.
“A quarter of all registered Sri Lankan MSMEs are women-owned. Women-owned micro enterprises alone are around 246,000, which is 26.3% of all registered MSMEs. This MoU will create a host of benefits and opportunities for them, starting from supporting the members of the FEMpower network, which exceeds 2,500 women entrepreneurs”.
COSMI will also be providing these women entrepreneurs with the necessary knowledge and know-how through marketing and technical input, such as the ability for these entrepreneurs to link with international markets. Gunawardana also shared similar thoughts during the event and said that this new collaboration will boost the keen and striving entrepreneurial community in her network.
“As a female entrepreneur, these days there is an opportunity to connect with other women in business; women are escaping from their corporate jobs to go out on their own, stay-at-home moms are looking for ways to make money, and in general, women seem to be very attracted to entrepreneurship. More women-owned businesses are in Sri Lanka now than 20 years ago. Linking up in this way also stimulates creativity and innovative thinking through interaction with a community of entrepreneurs with diverse business backgrounds.”
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"These days there is an opportunity to connect with other women in business; women are escaping from their corporate jobs to go out on their own, stay-at-home moms are looking for ways to make money, and in general, women seem to be very attracted to entrepreneurship" FEMpower Founder Chamari Gunawardana [/caption]
Rajabdeen stated that seeing these women entrepreneurs conduct their businesses in the last four months has shown him that they are more adept in advertising their businesses through social media platforms like FaceBook and Instagram, and e-marketing platforms. He explained that they use these platforms to sell the likes of dry rations, vegetables, fruits, and even cooked meals with delivery.
“We saw most women entrepreneurs go into selling prepared meals during the last few months, which was a smart move considering most of us were locked in our homes, and this provided us the opportunity to get home-cooked, cost-effective meals right to our doorstep. The other segment we saw them go into was baked goods, since most of us, especially children, wanted to celebrate birthdays and other special occasions with baked goods, and our women entrepreneurs provided them that opportunity.”
He stated that they witnessed women entrepreneurs come and register with them from across the island, including districts of the Sabaragamuwa, Central, North Central, and Eastern Provinces.
However, Rajabdeen stated that they lacked the support of the public sector when it came to this initiative. He explained that they had hoped to make this a private-public sector partnership, but unfortunately did not see any kind of support extended from the public sector.
“Even if we look at the state banks which were giving out funds for local startups, we could see that this support was not reaching the grassroot levels in many of the districts. We wanted state banks and insurance companies to get involved and support our women entrepreneurs through bank and insurance packages, but we did not see that either, despite us sending them letters and getting the blessing of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.”
As of 23 December, Rajabdeen estimated the number of women entrepreneurs registered with COSMI to be over 4,000 and announced their plans to separate each of these entrepreneurs based on their respective sectors.
"We wanted state banks and insurance companies to get involved and support our women entrepreneurs through bank and insurance packages, but we did not see that either " COSMI Founder President Nawaz Rajabdeen[/caption]
According to the Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka has more than one million registered Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), of which 24.8% are women-owned and have more women engaged in MSMEs in other roles.
Rajabdeen attributed this increase to the recent Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the MSME sector signed with local women entrepreneurs. The MoU which was signed on 15 September between COSMI and the FEMpower Women Entrepreneurs Network, is set to benefit the women in the local MSME segment, which makes up around a quarter of the segment.
“The FEMpower Women Entrepreneurs Network plays a commendable role in supporting Sri Lankan women entrepreneurs. Therefore COSMI is pleased to join with them to support Sri Lankan women to achieve their entrepreneurial goals. This collaboration will open the door for women entrepreneurs to acquire the necessary knowledge and know-how,” said Rajabdeen.
During the press event to mark the occasion, he stated that this MoU will solidify their commitment to providing knowledge, skills, information, and linkages to women entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka. Moreover, the event also saw the FEMpower Founder Chamari Gunawardana join the COSMI Board, creating a closer alliance to serve Sri Lankan women entrepreneurs.
Rajabdeen explained that it was COSMI’s mission to revive the industrial sector in Sri Lanka through MSMEs, with a vision to transform Sri Lankan MSMEs into world-class ventures. Therefore, the organisation linking with MSMEs from all 25 districts and women and youth empowerment are a key priority for COSMI.
“A quarter of all registered Sri Lankan MSMEs are women-owned. Women-owned micro enterprises alone are around 246,000, which is 26.3% of all registered MSMEs. This MoU will create a host of benefits and opportunities for them, starting from supporting the members of the FEMpower network, which exceeds 2,500 women entrepreneurs”.
COSMI will also be providing these women entrepreneurs with the necessary knowledge and know-how through marketing and technical input, such as the ability for these entrepreneurs to link with international markets. Gunawardana also shared similar thoughts during the event and said that this new collaboration will boost the keen and striving entrepreneurial community in her network.
“As a female entrepreneur, these days there is an opportunity to connect with other women in business; women are escaping from their corporate jobs to go out on their own, stay-at-home moms are looking for ways to make money, and in general, women seem to be very attracted to entrepreneurship. More women-owned businesses are in Sri Lanka now than 20 years ago. Linking up in this way also stimulates creativity and innovative thinking through interaction with a community of entrepreneurs with diverse business backgrounds.”
[caption id="attachment_110852" align="alignright" width="328"] "These days there is an opportunity to connect with other women in business; women are escaping from their corporate jobs to go out on their own, stay-at-home moms are looking for ways to make money, and in general, women seem to be very attracted to entrepreneurship" FEMpower Founder Chamari Gunawardana [/caption]
Rajabdeen stated that seeing these women entrepreneurs conduct their businesses in the last four months has shown him that they are more adept in advertising their businesses through social media platforms like FaceBook and Instagram, and e-marketing platforms. He explained that they use these platforms to sell the likes of dry rations, vegetables, fruits, and even cooked meals with delivery.
“We saw most women entrepreneurs go into selling prepared meals during the last few months, which was a smart move considering most of us were locked in our homes, and this provided us the opportunity to get home-cooked, cost-effective meals right to our doorstep. The other segment we saw them go into was baked goods, since most of us, especially children, wanted to celebrate birthdays and other special occasions with baked goods, and our women entrepreneurs provided them that opportunity.”
He stated that they witnessed women entrepreneurs come and register with them from across the island, including districts of the Sabaragamuwa, Central, North Central, and Eastern Provinces.
However, Rajabdeen stated that they lacked the support of the public sector when it came to this initiative. He explained that they had hoped to make this a private-public sector partnership, but unfortunately did not see any kind of support extended from the public sector.
“Even if we look at the state banks which were giving out funds for local startups, we could see that this support was not reaching the grassroot levels in many of the districts. We wanted state banks and insurance companies to get involved and support our women entrepreneurs through bank and insurance packages, but we did not see that either, despite us sending them letters and getting the blessing of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.”
As of 23 December, Rajabdeen estimated the number of women entrepreneurs registered with COSMI to be over 4,000 and announced their plans to separate each of these entrepreneurs based on their respective sectors.