Maria Contreras-Sweet, administrator of the Small Business Administration, has announced that the federal government awarded contracts worth approximately $17.8 billion to women-owned small businesses in fiscal year 2015.
She said in a statement published Wednesday the government has exceeded its goal to award 5 percent of all federal small business contracts to WOSBs for the first time.
“Meeting this goal means five percent is no longer our ceiling but our foundation upon which to build,” said Contreras-Sweet.
She added that SBA has launched 36 new industry categories in an effort to provide WOSBs opportunities to compete for sole-source and set-aside contracts as well as create new jobs.
Federal contract awards to small businesses reached $90.7 billion in FY 2015, a figure that represents nearly 26 percent of all government contracts, SBAÂ noted.
Small disadvantaged businesses received at least 10 percent of all federal contracts intended for small firms, while service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses got 3.93 percent in FY 2015.
