Women Urged To Discard Dependence Syndrome

Pini Bothoko | Monday August 3, 2015 15:24

She said this when giving the keynote address during the official opening of the third Northern women’s exposition held at Adansonia Hotel last Thursday. Masima said she has established a recurring trend whereby beneficiaries of government-funded projects always blame government for failure of the businesses.

“The government has taken a huge step in funding and empowering you as women. This is the time for you and country. The only way you could thank your government is to show commitment towards businesses, by create jobs for other citizens hence taking part in the development of the country’s economy,” said Masima.

She said that if women can take their businesses seriously through producing market competitive goods and services, their businesses have the potential to succeed. “I want to tell you that small and micro businesses have a great potential of playing a major role in the lives of women and the country, therefore I challenge you to be passionate towards your businesses,” she said.

Masima advised women against getting into business solely for profit but that they should make sure they deliver quality goods and services before they can talk about profit. “Through these programmes government is trying to empower you as women as studies have shown that women are the ones mostly affected by poverty,” said Masima.

She said that in life everyone has an idea of what they wish to do but usually implementation of that idea is always the problem. “Perseverance is the key for success in every business, therefore you should know that all successful businesses went through struggle at one point,” she said.

She encouraged women to take advantage of the expositions to market and advertise their businesses in order to penetrate the market. She further pleaded with women in their various businesses fields to be ready for competition in the market and come up with unique businesses that can withstand competition. Masima called on women to support each other by networking and discard the habit of gossiping about each other.

“Before asking for financial assistance you should conduct market research business to check if your idea is viable or not,” she said. She also encouraged women to diversify their businesses. The chief judge at the exposition Mmala Oefile called on women to put more emphasis on branding, packaging and marketing their goods, which she discovered, were not up to required standards.