Stage set for northern women�s expo

Pini Bothoko | Thursday July 28, 2016 11:57

In an interview with senior gender officer in the Department of Gender Affairs, Poloko Sethono said for a change they have introduced new businesses hence looking forward to a great show. Sethono disclosed that this year’s forum has targeted 150 women entrepreneurs.

She said the forum will offer women entrepreneurs an opportunity to come under one roof and showcase their products, learn from one another as well as to network among themselves. “We will be having entrepreneurs from the Central District, North East, Francistown, Selebi-Phikwe, Chobe and Ngami to showcase their various fields such as manufacturing, service provision and other economic sectors,” said Sethono.

She added that the exciting thing this year is that there will be women entrepreneurs who will be showcasing services from Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) and construction, which are traditionally male-dominated. “The stalls will be sold at P100, P200 to P300 depending on the size. These prices are reasonable because as government we are committed to supporting women businesses. Stakeholders’ stalls will be sold at P500. We call for their support because only seven stakeholders’ stalls have been sold so far,” said Sethono.

She said there will be 10 graduating women businesses amongst the exhibitors whom they are hopeful will give the upcoming entrepreneurs motivation towards the growth of their businesses. Sethono said on July 12 they held a pre-expo workshop in partnership with the Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) and commercial affairs. They trained and sensetised women entrepreneurs on what they should expert as well as their preparations towards taking part in this year’s forum.

She stated that with commitment towards their businesses she believes that women entrepreneurs can be able to battle their way into the market. Sethono said the challenges they have been experiencing in women’s projects are marketing and packaging of products hence calling for women to strengthen more on these areas. “Women have been failing to produce projects of good quality in order to penetrate the market. But we are hopeful that from the workshops that we have held in preparing for this forum they have learnt a lot and are equipped with the knowledge on how to market their products,” she said. “We are concerned by similar projects, but we have encouraged women entrepreneurs to rather consider finding their niche market and focus on it.”  Sethono said the majority of women are into garments production and fail to penetrate the market. She encouraged women entrepreneurs to take responsibility of their projects and not depend on government.

She said government has taken a deliberate move to support women’s businesses during tendering processes as they are given 30% of the tenders. “We will be taking full responsibility of all businesses from outside Francistown, their accommodation as well as their merchandise,” said Sethono adding that the budget for this year’s forum ranges between P900,000 and P1.1 million.