The Bank of Maldives (BML) has announced the winners of its Startup Grant, which was launched as part of the series of 12 high-impact monthly community initiatives to celebrate its 40th anniversary.
The BML Startup Grant is a programme for emerging entrepreneurs to win grant funding to start or grow a business in the Maldives. As such, four winning businesses are to be awarded USD32,300. BML will provide mentoring support for the winners to successfully implement their plans.
The four winners announced by BML are Mohamed Nazlee and Aishath Shamma Mohamed of NirisS Embroidery to expand their existing embroidery business, Aminath Irasha of Kids Zone to launch a new business teaching woodcraft with a conducive learning environment for children with special needs, Hawwa Suzan of Hawwan Cakes to expand existing small scale, home-based cake business into a bakery and introduce training facilities; and Aishath Liusha of Climate Smart Good Agricultural Practices to expand the existing business to promote sustainable farming.
The national bank said the winners of its Startup Grant fund are emerging entrepreneurs who have demonstrated an eagerness and promise to grow and manage their businesses sustainably through their plans and presentation. BML revealed the winners were selected out of over 100 applicants across the country and through a highly competitive evaluation process comprising of two stages.