Bluthorn Partnership To Bolster Wiba Members
Pauline Dikuelo | Monday March 12, 2018 18:18
The Memorandum of Understanding signed would see WIBA members get financial assistance of between P200,000.00 and P1.5 million from the South African company.
According to WIBA president Nametso Ntsosa-Carr, they have partnered with the company last year November after realising that many of their members win tenders and mostly fail to deliver due to lack of finance.
“BluThorn came in handy in this regard.They have already starting helping women by financing their purchase orders and more of our members are now inspired to even expand their businesses,” she said.
Ntsosa-Carr said that most of the women in business lack funding and market access noting that they are working hard to ensure that they bridge this gap.
As part of the committee’s efforts to raise funds for the organisations, they would have events including the High Tea which would be held in Maun and Gaborone, Golf day in Gaborone as well as cultural dinner night and awards.
Further, she said this year they have plans to open regional offices in Gantsi, Maun and Francistown.
“I want to see WIBA having a diverse membership and want to see women at the most remote areas of the country make use of WIBA services. I want to see WIBA grow both as a brand and in numbers so as to amplify our voice,” she said.
Ntsosa-Carr noted that the informal sector has a lot of potential and opportunities that are evident noting that as per their mandate as WIBA, they pledge to provide advocacy plans and capacity building and hand-holding programmes, in order to enable businesswomen in this sector to acquire business skills and have their challenges addressed.
She said that the informal sector remains the largest employer by far, despite challenges that include lack of market access, lack of funding and the basic challenges that they face as household managers, noting that by addressing them, this would result in creation of employment opportunities.
About three years ago, WIBA signed a MoU with South African organisation, Phenomenal African Women South Africa, to get local business entering into partnerships with the South Africa counterparts as well as sharing knowledge on ways to better develop each other.
“This MOU has benefited the country broadly as I managed to get the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism and the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security to go and benchmark in the northwest province,” she said.