As a way of bringing a permanent and positive impact in the lives of the finalists, the pageantry recently hosted a Financial Literacy and Empowerment session. The event was held on International Women’s Day to celebrate and empower women. The finalists were empowered with various skills to make money and introduced to various programmes to improve their lives. For his part, a lawyer and entrepreneur, Thobo Kerekang, taught the ladies about different types of contracts. He explained the difference between verbal and written contracts. He also taught them how to recognise a valid contract, and its contents and explained what signing on the dotted line and initialing on every page meant. Kerekang also taught the finalists about strategies and planning for Small Micro and Medium Enterprises (SMMEs). He advised them to establish their businesses so that they could be able to fend for themselves and their families. He also encouraged them to have plans, document them, and try to always follow them. “No matter how small or little you think your business is, always have a plan or strategy on how you are going to be running that little enterprise of yours. Always have organisational policies, job descriptions, and conditions of service so that you can refer to them during conflict resolution,” he said.
Additionally, the business development manager, (Poso Insure) Refilwe Leshona, taught attendees about the difference between savings and investments where she spoke about how it is best to invest over savings saying one could almost always easily access savings even when trying to put controls like not having a bank card for the savings account. “In the insurance portfolio, we sell all the policies you can think of. We have a funeral, your household contents just like we experienced floods recently. We assist. We insure your home structures as well. Seventy percent of employees finish their salary within three days of being paid. Batswana women often go over their salaries. After spending their salaries they borrow some money. Let us be real to ourselves and live within our earnings. Let's save money,” she said. The finalists also got financial and life advices from other women of substance the likes of a Mystery Nest Moderator, Onaya Dithuso, Mrs Botswana 2024/25 Oampata Leroy, and the host Zenzel Hirschfeld, the founder of Women of Works.
