
Tackling Sustainability as One Nation: How SMEs Can Lead and Thrive
As Singapore advances its Green Plan 2030, UOB FinLab is working with SMEs to turn sustainability into a pathway for growth, resilience, and long-term success.
The team at UOB FinLab is excited to announce our first programme for the year – the 2025 edition of our Digitalisation Innovation Programme, Womenpreneur (D.I.P:W).
D.I.P:W 2025 is designed to build a community and empower female entrepreneurs through mentorship, business transformation, and growth with digital innovation. The programme is tailored to female entrepreneurs, business owners and managerial positions who own or manage small to medium businesses.
This year’s programme is perfect for womenpreneurs looking to develop critical skills like financial management, branding, marketing and digitalisation strategies through engaging workshops. The programme will grant participants access to mentors from UOB’s leaders and partners such as SAP, BCG and AWS. Participants will also gain opportunities to network with other female professionals and collaborate on business initiatives.
D.I.P:W 2025 will be organised into five key pillars designed to equip womenpreneurs with the necessary knowledge to thrive as an entrepreneur in today’s day and age. Each pillar will consist of a series of workshops and discussions to help participants understand the best practices and master their skillset.
Pillar 1: Business transformation
Pillar 2: Brand and Marketing Strategies
Pillar 3: Business Resilience
Pillar 4: Innovation and Scalability
Pillar 5: Community Building and Support
The key dates for this year’s programme are as follows:
11 April 2025 – Womenpreneur Networking Session.
23-29 April 2025- Digital Innovation Programme, Womenpreneur 2025.
May-July – Mentorship follow up.
UOB FinLab’s D.I.P:W programme in 2024 received tremendous feedback and was a huge success. The programme connected female entrepreneurs with industry experts and professional mentors who provided individualised feedback relevant to their specific business challenges. Participants also learned about financial literacy, business model canvas development, e-commerce, and digital strategies.
As a result of the overwhelming response last year, we launched our first two-day masterclass workshop titled Digitalisation Innovation Programme: Womenpreneur+ (D.I.P:W+) to complement the base D.I.P:W programme and cover new topics that are crucial to the success of any business. The topics include crafting a brand narrative, effective marketing channels and LinkedIn strategies for organic growth. The programme was held over two days and consisted of three insightful masterclasses conducted by industry experts.
Our 2024 edition nurtured strong relationships amongst the womenpreneurs. Many of them continued to stay in close contact and even explored business collaborations. You may find out more about what our previous womenpreneurs said about the programme here.
UOB FinLab will continue to support womenpreneurs through our programmes, which are designed to impart knowledge, skills and access to our vast network of over 32,000 professionals across ASEAN.
As Singapore advances its Green Plan 2030, UOB FinLab is working with SMEs to turn sustainability into a pathway for growth, resilience, and long-term success.
At UOB FinLab, we’ve spent the last 10 years enabling SMEs across the region to adapt, transform, and thrive, no matter how the market moves.
It has been almost a year since the team at UOB FinLab culminated its GreenTech Accelerator 2024 (GTA). We decided to check in with one of the GreenTech participants and see the progress that is being made.
Senior Lecturer, Ngee Ann Polytechnic
Melvin Gan is a senior lecturer at Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s School of Business and Accountancy, where he specialises in sustainability in business management, ESG reporting, digital marketing, consumer insights, and human-centered design thinking. A founding member of the Sustainability Module Team, he has been instrumental in developing specialised curricula such as Corporate Governance and Reporting for Sustainable Business and has contributed to the growth of the Business Sustainability and Digitalisation specialisation.
Consultant & Trainer, CSO Centre
Joyce was former Commercial Director at Climate Impact Exchange (CIX), a global carbon solutions provider established by Temasek Holdings, Singapore Exchange, DBS Bank & Standard Chartered in Singapore. She was hired as part of the founding team and represented CIX in multiple public forums on decarbonisation, market development and green finance.
Joyce has close to 20 years of experience in the financial industry. She has helmed leadership roles at Singapore Exchange, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse across various business and operation units. At CIX, she worked with C-Suites, NGOs and financiers on decarbonisation solutions, global carbon market development, as well as alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for long term impact and business resilience.
Consultant & Trainer, CSO Centre
Lance is an FSA Credential Holder and GRI Certified Sustainability Professional. Throughout his corporate career, he has worked at JPMorgan, Citibank and Singapore Exchange. As a marketing and corporate communications consultant, his clients have included DBS, Singtel, UOB, Bank of Singapore as well as many other government organisations, SMEs and startups.
He currently specializes in helping corporates with ESG and sustainability reporting as a trainer and consultant. His courses have been taken by individuals and companies from all over the world and accredited by the Institute of Banking & Finance (Singapore). He is also an associate lecturer with Ngee Ann Polytechnic for various sustainability-related courses.
Designed for business owners to enhance their digital capabilities through practical learning, this programme takes businesses to the next level.
Designed for business owners to enhance their digital capabilities through practical learning, this programme takes businesses to the next level.
Bridge ideas and innovation, subscribe to the FinLab Connect now!