The second edition of the Women Entrepreneur Awards (WEA) was launched on Saturday 27th July 2024 at the House of Digital Art in Port Louis. The theme of the event was ‘Celebrating our Trailblazers’ which brought together applicants for this year’s competition along with sponsors, partners and stakeholders from the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
This year’s awards were officially launched by Chief Guest Naila Hanoomanjee, CEO of Landscope Mauritius, who shared her own career path and urged business leaders to support women entrepreneurs.
The launch of this second edition of the Women Entrepreneur Awards (WEA) was held against the backdrop of building an entrepreneurial path through commitment and resilience and knowing how to equip yourself with the skills necessary to drive success. The event was intended to bring together the candidates in the running in an exceptional location and to set the tone of this new edition.
Introducing this year’s awards, Kirti Sheonarain, Founder, Event Management and Digital Marketing Partner, commented that
“WEA is a platform that has been created to promote, showcase and celebrate the contribution of our women entrepreneurs in the Mauritian economy. The Women Entrepreneur Awards 2024 are aligned with the UN’s theme “Invest in Women, Accelerate Progress”.
She announced that a series of workshops for participants will be held in the month of August, on financial literacy and digital literacy hosted by Bank One and Emtel respectively, while Ennoia alongside psychologist Sanjana Gobin will be hosting the physical and mental wellness workshops. Shortlisted candidates for the awards will be revealed at an event on 9th September 2024, with the finals to be held on 19th October 2024, she added. These will be offered for free to our applicants.
As the venue host for the event, Karen Yvon, Managing Director, House of Digital Art, said,
“It is our honour to accompany this project and to co-host, with EDITH and Lavastone Properties, the launch ceremony of the Women Entrepreneur Awards. The House of Digital Art is really happy to welcome this event tonight because despite all of our differences the one thing that we share is passion. That passion for culture and innovation is in the DNA of the House of Digital Art. The message that we wanted to convey to all women entrepreneurs who will be part of this journey is to fight to keep the passion alive.”
Jean-Luc Manneback, Head of Impact Production Group and partner of the event underlined that women represent 43% of the business creators of the world. He paid tribute to his own wife as a key pillar of the business they had set up.
“Women play a crucial role not only in the economic development of the country, but also in the transformation of society. They have a certain sensibility that men do not have, and they deserve specific attention and encouragement. It is very important to build awareness and to encourage women entrepreneurship. This is why elements such as WEA are important as it gives them the possibility to have more credibility and support.”
Speaking on behalf of Bank One as a sponsor of the event, Sendy Thoplan, Head of SME and Business Banking, expressed the bank’s deep commitment and enthusiasm for being part of this empowering initiative.
“We have joined this event because we strongly believe in the power and potential of women entrepreneurs.”
He pledged that Bank One would bring knowledge, expertise and its network to the table, offering mentorship, training and resources to help the candidates develop their skills and enhance their business acumen.
Reiterating the full support of his company, Sendy Thoplan announced that Bank One will fully sponsor a workshop on financial literacy to foster learning, collaboration and growth, which would provide women with the tools and insights to face upcoming challenges and seize opportunities. More broadly, he highlighted that there are 127,000 SMEs in the Mauritian economy, which contribute 40% to GDP and which employ 54% of the workforce of the island.
In officially launching this year’s awards, Chief Guest Naila Hanoomanjee, CEO of Landscope Mauritius, shared her own career path shaped by a passion for real estate and construction, an industry where she was not taken seriously by her peers in the UK at the outset. She pointed to the 2023 Global Gender Gaps Index of the World Economic Forum, which revealed that, at the current rate of progress, it would take 169 years for the world to close the current economic participation and gender opportunity gap. She also described her own grandmother and mother as role models driving her own ambitions.
“Entrepreneurship in general is not for the fainthearted, but women entrepreneurs, being the primary care givers in most families, have an even harder time, having to share more obstacles than men,” she remarked. Access to finance, societal norms, lack of confidence and self-doubt are some of the main barriers that women face. My appeal today to you, business leaders, is to play a bigger role in supporting women entrepreneurs and female leadership in general. As business leaders we are in a position of power and it is our responsibility to invest in women to give them opportunities to open doors for them and to encourage them to walk through these .”
In terms of the company’s support for the Women Entrepreneur Awards, Naila Hanoomanjee underlined that “It is not just a choice for Landscope Mauritius but a responsibility, that of highlighting the excellent work of the women entrepreneurs and giving them our heartfelt encouragement”.
All-male panel shares insights on breaking the barriers for women entrepreneurs
On the basis that tough talks can lead to better mutual understanding, representatives of the main sponsors were called on stage to participate in a panel discussion. The particularity of this exchange? All the participants were men, which greatly impressed Marie-Noëlle Elissac Foy, Head Ambassador of WEA and Founder of the Talent Factory, who was in charge of leading the debate. And their answers to the questions did not disappoint the audience.
In the spotlight, the panellists played the game by responding honestly, sometimes using humour to describe situations of absurd inequality in their own experience : Alvyn Ulrish Shad Savrimuthu, Project Executive at Perpetual Motion, Umarfarooq Omarjee, Executive Director, OMJ Company, Ali Asgarr Mamode, Head Of Marketing And Communications, Bank One, Caleb Samy, Product Manager, Emtel and Sandee Teeroovengadum, Head of Marketing and Communications, Landscope Mauritius.
Everyone agreed that times have changed and that it is becoming urgent to give women the place they deserve. However, they recognised that stereotypes could instil bias, influencing the behaviour of certain men in business relationships. It was deemed important to focus on achieving a real transformation of the professional environment, for example in the facilities for obtaining a bank loan for a female entrepreneur, the way society evaluates the role of women within companies and their right to have a salary equal to their male colleagues.
Finals of the awards to be held in October
The final of the awards is due to be held in October 2024, which will bring together successful entrepreneurs, business leaders and government officials to create an opportunity for attendees to network, share insights, and gain valuable knowledge from some of the most successful women entrepreneurs in Mauritius.
As for the previous edition, this year’s jury is made up of entrepreneurs and businesspeople who have built a solid reputation in their respective fields: Johanne Hague, Barrister – Renaud Azema, CEO Vatel Mauritius – Julien Guillot-Sestier, Founder of Turn Off Communication – Ingrid Bell, Managing Director of Aestika Studio – Lea Verbizier, Manging Director at Ome Mauritius- Eric Grenouilleau, founder of BlueFrog Holding.
This second edition of the WEA has therefore got off to a flying start and is set to deliver on its promise by shining a spotlight on women from various sectors, taking their destiny in hand and preparing them to take on the challenges!
