26 Apr 2016

The Minister of Health Ms Dorcas Makgato has called upon companies to empower Womens Finance House Botswana (WFHB).

WFHB is an organization which was established to assist low income women entrepreneurs who are operating in the informal sector and do not have access or qualify for normal business services from conventional banking institutions.

Ms Makgato said low income women entrepreneurs are engaged in productive activities but face many challenges because of lack of access to financial resources. 

She however said that WFHB is set to meet their needs which range from lack of business training, savings facilities and micro finance in order to sustain and grow their businesses.   

Ms Makgato was speaking at the official launch of WFHB centre in Sefhare recently. 

She said the opening of the centre in Sefhare village was worth celebrating as the business women in the district would now access service closer unlike in the past where they used to travel long distance to Mahalapye to access services.

She said the hardwork, zeal and determination that the low income women entrepreneurs in Sefhare had demonstrated said a lot about their seriousness towards growing and sustaining their businesses. 

She applauded WFHB for the initiative to bring services closer to low income entrepreneurs in Sefhare and surrounding villages.

Ms Makgato said she believed that the ongoing discourse around the financial inclusion agenda was key and in that agenda, the organisation was advocating for “the development of financial systems that met the needs of the majority, who are women.

She said it was a fact that women were in the majority in the informal sector, actively engaged in income generation, working hard to sustain their micro businesses in order to sustain, feed and improve the quality of life of the families. 

She said WFHB was set to support such women initiatives and alleviate poverty and that its mandate fully complimented the government’s initiatives on poverty eradication and improvement of the quality of life of the nation. 

“To that end we believe that in this agenda when you empower a woman you will without doubt empower and transform a nation,” she said.  

The chief executive officer of Standard Chartered Bank Mr Moatlhodi Lekaukau said that his bank was committed to empowering women.

He said they had sponsored WFHB with P1 million and would also offer institutional capacity  to support WFHB. 

The P1million benefits the WFHB members through the credit programme, as they will be given loans to help sustain their businesses. ENDS