Amid celebrations throwing the spotlight on the achievements of Omani women, a social initiative named Ma7al’ha has been launched.
In celebration of Omani Women’s Day 2022, Lahunna joined hands with City Centre Muscat to launch Ma7al’ha, a social initiative to honour and celebrate Omani women running small businesses.
Out of 100 applicants, 13 were selected to showcase their products for seven days at City Centre Muscat.
Shatha al Maskiry, Founder of Lahunna Oman, said, “We are giving businesswomen a chance to shine and succeed. This collaboration with City Centre Muscat gives them greater exposure to grow their customer base and allows them to play in the big leagues and aspire to become the super brands of tomorrow.”
Inspired by Lahunna Oman, Ma7al’ha, which directly translates to “her place” in English, is a play-on-word, meaning, ‘her shop’, ‘her place’ in the business community and society as a whole. The logo illustrates limitless opportunities surrounding women.
Speaking to the Observer, Shatha said, “This isn’t something new. Over 70 per cent of the SMEs registered in the last decade were registered by Omani women. This is clearly visible with the growing number of shops in the retail sector - home decor, garments, perfumery, jewellery, food and beverage, to name a few.”
According to her, the pandemic has had a positive impact in this aspect.
"A huge influx of new small companies surfaced during the pandemic (especially on Instagram) which suggests that Omani women are economic contributors to the household. There could not have been a better time to celebrate them than now and to make them more visible to help them grow and thrive. Their growth directly contributes to the growth of our economy.”
Small companies, however, do have their challenges, but this is how Shatha views it, “Several initiatives have been introduced recently to curb some of the challenges, and I believe other challenges are being carefully studied to devise solutions which will encourage more SMEs to enter the market.”
@lakshmioman
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