Alcohol levy: A blessing for women entrepreneurs
Mpho Mokwape | Monday June 29, 2015 16:36
Minister of Labour and Foreign Affairs, Edwin Batshu revealed this during the official opening of the 16th National Women’s Exposition on Thursday held at Boipuso Hall under the theme Beijing +20 Women’s Economic Empowerment: Prosperity and Progress for All.
Batshu said in the just ended financial year, the ministry was issued with a total of P25.2 million from the alcohol levy for women’s economic empowerment programmes.
“These funds supported a total of 72 women’s groups, creating jobs for 360 individuals and in addition, the ministry received an additional P23 million for the poverty eradication programme where a total of 1,413 individuals were supported,” he said.
Batshu pointed out that with the revelation from international sources that women were becoming more important in the global market place not just as workers, but also as consumers, entrepreneurs, managers and investors; creating suitable markets for them was crucial.
“Surveys suggest that women make up 80 percent of consumers’ buying decisions, therefore making better use of women’s skills is not just a matter of fairness but good business sense too,” he said. He said many ought to understand that under utilisation of women stunts economic growth, therefore slowing down sustainable socio-economic development. He further said as the ministry, are sensitive to the persistent challenge of women entrepreneurs ability to access markets, so they continue to provide opportunities like women expositions.
“It is in recognition of these challenges that the government employs various strategies such as the Affirmative Action Framework for Remote Area Communities,’’ he said.
He also noted that the country has registered significant progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment of which in the overall by the World Economic Forum’s 2014 Global Gender Gap Report and Index, the country climbed from 34 places to 51 out of 142 countries surveyed.
In addition, in terms of female participation in the economy, the country moved up 40 places to number eight in the world.
“With regard to equality of educational attainment, we ranked at the top of the table, sharing first place over the past five years with a number of other countries for having achieved an almost perfect gender balance at all levels,” he said.