Economic Empowerment
Source: Swazi Observer
In an effort to economically empower women by strengthening their entrepreneurial skills, the Business Women’s Forum of Swaziland (BWFS) will be hosting a consultative meeting to be held at Sibane Hotel.
BWFS Marketing and Communications Officer Mphiwa Gamedze said the dialogue was aimed at obtaining views and opinions of women in business or those interested in starting a business in order to inform activities of the Forum on women economic empowerment.
Interested
“This will assist the Forum to set out strategic goals, objectives and activities that are relevant to the needs of the business women,” Gamedze said.
He said the dialogue was open to all women in business or those interested in starting a business in Swaziland.
He said the entry fee to the dialogue was E50. The dialogue would be held at Sibane Hotel in Ezulwini over two days; on Thursday and friday this week.
Gamedze said the content of the dialogue or thematic areas to be covered during the meeting include capacity building, where women attending would be trained on what to expect if they wanted to be entrepreneurs.
He said the capacity building would be conducted by Technoserve.
Businesses
Attendants would also get an opportunity to network and communicate, where they would share ideas on how they could work together.
Attendants of the dialogue would be schooled on how they can have access to market to grow their businesses, with EMFM Consulting helping them on that regard.
Gamedze said the Small Enterprise Development Company (SEDCO) would also be there to ensure that the attendants get to know how they can be assisted on mentorship and support.
On membership, the South African Supplier Diversity Council would be there to assist. Gamedze said Old Mutual Swaziland would be there to give assistance on how the attendants could access finance to grow their businesses.
Gamedze said to facilitate the dialogue, they had identified Khulile Mthethwa.
Mthethwa is an influential South African business woman.
Community
“She is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a Shareholder at Ndikolo Industries (Pty) Ltd,” Gamedze said. He said Mthethwa was also a Business Development Executive at Swatek Electrical and she was also the founder of She Cares Women Foundation.
She has a vast experience in community and organisational development.
Gamedze said by organising the dialogue, they were achieving the aim of BWFS, which was to expand women’s economic opportunities through promoting entrepreneurship and improving access to information and productive resources to facilitate economic growth.
He said they also wanted to strengthen existing Small and Middle Enterprises (SMEs) support infrastructure and implementation of national policies, strategies and action plans.
Opportunities
He said the BWFS approach was in line with the 2010 National Gender Policy strategies on women economic empowerment which sought to promote self-employment opportunities through entrepreneurship and economic empowerment to limit dependence on wage employment, strengthen entrepreneurial skills for women through training in small and medium enterprise development, and to encourage women to use information and technology for business transactions, marketing and networking.