Selima wins Oslo Business for Peace Award

Founder President of Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BWCCI) Selima Ahmad has won the coveted ‘Oslo Business for Peace’ Award this year. The Oslo Business for Peace Award is the highest form of recognition given to individual business leaders for fostering peace and stability through creating shared values between business and society. Selima, also vice-chairperson of Nitol-Niloy Group, is the second Bangladeshi to win the award. Earlier, renowned businessman Latifur Rahman won the prestigious 2012 Oslo Business for Peace Award for maintaining commitment to social responsibility and ethical values. The 2014 Oslo Business for Peace honourees have been named by the Foundation’s independent Award Committee consisting of Nobel Prize winners in Peace and Economics. The honourees’ significant contributions to a wider acceptance of Business worthy behaviour will be recognised during the Oslo Business for Peace Summit and Award on May 15, in Oslo City Hall. Five other winners are Ouided Bouchamaoui (Tunisia), Sir Richard Branson (UK), Kesha Kumari Damini (Nepal), Adnan Kassar (Lebanon) and Marilyn Carlson Nelson (USA), according to the official website of the Business for Peace Foundation. The worldwide search for the 2014 honourees is a joint effort by the International Chamber of Commerce, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Global Compact and the Oslo-based Business for Peace Foundation. Nitol-Niloy Group is involved in automobiles, cement, sugar, real estate and financial services. With her deep understanding of the plight of women in a Muslim poverty-afflicted society, she focuses on developing entrepreneurial talent, and organising financial and marketing resources in order to enable women to overcome hurdles and expand their business beyond the micro threshold, according to a news agency.