29 Feb 2016

The Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) held its inaugural flea market day in Ramotswa on Saturday February 27.

The flea market targeted people under LEA mentorship and non LEA customers.

LEA market analyst, Mr Khaolani Phineas said in an interview that the motive was to provide a platform for small and emerging entrepreneurs to showcase their products.

He said some of the emerging entrepreneurs operated backyard businesses, hence the difficulty to market and reach out to the community.

He said the flea market initiative was different from the usual market days because any community member was allowed to showcase products.

Mr Phineas said business owners did not need to be registered with any entity, adding that LEA only provided a platform for them to showcase products.

 In addition, Mr Phineas who is also the flea market coordinator, said they had realised that some of the residents travelled to Gaborone for amenities which are available in their locality.

Therefore businesses in the village compete with those in Gaborone due to the village’s proximity to the city.

Nonetheless, he called upon the small businesses to organise themselves adding that if they were organised, LEA would facilitate a weeklong flea market for them.

Furthermore he said the turnout was low but noted that some of the small business owners had indicated that they were not ready to show their products.

Hence he remained hopeful that the next flea market will have a better turn out.

 He said some of those who showcased were under the Ministry of Youth Sport and Culture’s Youth Development Fund (YDF) and Social, Community Development (S&CD) and others were just community members.

Mr Phineas said through the flea market, businesses couldforge relationships and get public exposure and added that the concept is part of the poverty eradication initiative. Ends