09 Dec 2015

Chobe business women have been urged to register their businesses officially in order to be taken seriously and recognised internationally.

This was said by the chairperson of African Women’s Entrepreneurship Programme (AWEP) Ms Chigedze Chinyepi on Monday during an outreach and awareness workshop hosted in Kazungula to inform and empower local businesses women.

Ms Chinyepi explained that AWEP aims to empower African women entrepreneurs to promote business growth, increase trade both regionally and to the United States market.

She emphasised that local businesses women should produce high quality goods in order to attain international markets.

Head of Gender Affairs in Kasane, Ms Onneile Monna said  local women businesses were  passion driven but lack vision pertaining to where to sell their end-products.

“Lack of education and financial skills is a common setback among women businesses,” she said.

Ms Tshepiso Ketlogetswe, an entrepreneur and a beneficiary of the Youth Development Fund (YDF), who sells recycled glass cups and cutlery holders, noted that AWEP had given her hope and new market opportunities for her business.

“I was demotivated in my business and even contemplating venturing into a different industry,” she said.

Ms Gertrude Mwazi, of the Zwemwihande Company, which moulds bricks, said that AWEP gave her a challenge to improve the quality of her bricks so that she can be globally competitive.

She further said AWEP gave her business a vision beyond the Botswana market. “AWEP will connect my company with United States and regional markets opportunities” Mwazi said.

Participants were urged to work hard and produce quality goods so that they could  compete with other countries for opportunities such as African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which allows African businesses an opportunity to sell their goods in the US market.

The two day programme also capacitated women on financial literacy and business management.  

Established in May this year in Botswana, AWEP provides professional networking, business development and trade capacity building opportunities to African women. Ends