06 Nov 2016

 After facing the hardships of the world, including lack of job opportunities, Ms Grace Ndana (31) and Ms Christinah Same (30) put their heads together and established a partnership business dealing in Information Communication Technology (ICT) services.

In an interview recently, Ms Ndana, who is a beneficiary of the Poverty Eradication Programme and qualified in business studies, said that patience is the power to sustain a business.

They undertook a short business training course through the Poverty Eradication Programme where they graduated and both were allocated the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation’s (BTC) Kitsong Centre to operate.

Ms Ndana said BTC offered them a start-up capital and gave them an opportunity to order their stock from them at a lower price.

People in their village now have access to technological services such as printing, Internet access, phone recharging, airtime purchase and faxing even though there are some technical problems such as shortage or poor network availability and refilling of printers ink as they are far away from towns.

“We have however learnt to appreciate the little we have and we have been operating for one year and two months and have learnt that jobs are not easy to find in our country, so we wanted to venture into business and be our own boss,” she noted. Moreover, she indicated that customers do visit their business and give them both positive and negative feedback.

She said they always encourage them to be positive, persistent, committed and determined to achieve their goals.

Ms Ndana further stated that she was hopeful that the Youth Development Fund (YDF) would help empower them before the end of the year .

She said being the only provider of ICT services in Dzoroga has sustained them and encouraged other youth to be dedicated and focused on their businesses and also support each other. ENDS