AIA partners WCIC to promote women entrepreneurship across the nation

AIA Insurance partnered Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce (WCIC) recently. The partnership included AIA as a Gold Sponsor for WCIC PRATHIBHABHISHEKA - Women Entrepreneur Awards 2022, organised by the Women’s Chamber of Commerce (WCIC) and for WCIC’s strategic events to promote women entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka for 2022- 2023.

As a company that has fostered women empowerment, entrepreneurship and economic inclusion for decades, AIA sees a natural synergy and common vision with the objectives of WCIC which in a national level body driving women empowerment and financial inclusion across the nation. AIA’s ‘AYA SURAKINA AIA’ programme drives the economic independence and progress of women, be it employees, agents, customers or the community. Through collaborative partnerships, AIA conducts extensive research on women and insurance while helping make meaningful positive impacts to Sri Lankan women by way of insurance solutions, financial literacy trainings, networks, recognition and access to information.

As a best workplace for women in Sri Lanka, AIA is firm in its commitment to gender equality and inclusivity for employees.  Over the past year, the company has increased the percentage of women in its workforce up to 41%. With 47% women representation in its sales force of Wealth Planners, notably 53% of women are among the Top 100 High Performing sales Wealth Planners, bringing in over half of new businesses.

For AIA, it is not just about increasing the number of women in the workforce, but more so about ensuring their development and career growth. Increasing the share of ‘Women in Leadership’ is a key focus, from facilitating flexible working hours to enabling growth through learning, coaching and ‘on the job’ local or foreign exposures. As a result, today, 21% of AIA’s senior management are women with the company’s women in insurance special roles including 70% in operations and 63% in actuarial.