Selima Ahmad Honoured With Oslo Business for Peace Award 2014

Selima Ahmad, Vice Chairperson of Nitol Niloy Group and Founder of Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BWCCI) has won 2014 Oslo Business for Peace Award. This award is considered the highest form of recognition given to individual business leaders for fostering peace and stability through creating shared value between business and society. This is the first time this international prestigious award has been given to Asian businesswomen.

 “We congratulate you with the exceptional appreciation you have thus been given by the Award Committee, and are truly proud to have you in the exclusive group of Business for Peace Honourees,” the Business for Peace Foundation said in a letter to Selima Ahmad.

This year, six honourees, including Selima Ahmad, have been selected from out of 120 candidates from 50 countries.

The selected honorees are business persons who, through their own actions and commitments, promote socially responsible and ethical business practices in an outstanding way and stand out as examples to the world.

The honourees will be presented with the awards in an award giving ceremony on 15 May 2014 in Oslo City Hall.

This recognition has included Selima Ahamd in the group of exceptional business personalities like Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Group in India, who got the award in 2010, and Jeffrey R Immelt, CEO of General Electric in the US, who won it in 2009.

“I am deeply honored for having this prestigious award which was selected by the Noble Laureates. This award recognizes the strength, sincerity, integrity, intelligence, commitment and competence of Bangladeshi women in Business” Selima Ahmad said in her instant reaction.

“I continuously work with all my dedication not only to grow my own business with value and ethics but also work equally to see women entrepreneurship and private sector grows with the same aspirationss”, she added.

Congratulating Selima Ahmad, Nitol Niloy Group Chairman Abdul Matlub Ahmad said, “Selima deserves this great award as she relentlessly worked to develop BWCCI as a voice for women in business. Her passion to excel through ethical processes has helped NITOL NILOY GROUP to grow into one of the finest organization in Bangladesh"

‘I congratulate Selima to be among the first business women in Asia to be honored with the Business for Peace Award. Her business integrity, commitment and contribution to society is a beacon of pride and joy for all women of Bangladesh’, said BWCCI president Sangita Ahmed.

Selima has been working for the private sector development for last 28 years and actively involved in developing more than 7,000 women entrepreneurs. Her company Nitol-Niloy Group is one the reputable leading business house in Bangladesh having 26 companies amongst which six are joint venture and three public companies which includes automobiles, cement, paper, real estate, electronics and financial services.

An independent committee of Nobel Prize winners in peace and economics selects the recipients. This year’s award-giving committee consists of Shirin Ebadi, winner of 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, Finn Kydland Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics recipient in 2004 and Leymah Gbowee winner of 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.

The Business for Peace Foundation, formed in 2007 to promote relationship between business and peace, has been awarding businesspersons from across the globe every year since 2009.

The partners of the Business for Peace Foundation are The International Chamber of Commerce, the United Nations Development Programme, and the United Nations Global Compact.