The Sunday Mail
Livingstone Marufu
THE local chapter of the Federation of National Associations of Women in Business in Eastern and Southern Africa (FEMCOM) — an affiliate of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) —has started rolling out training programmes that are designed to link local businesswomen to markets in East and Southern Africa.
FEMCOM has national chapters in all 19 Comesa countries – Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The group mainly promotes the activities of women in business, particularly within the Comesa regional economic bloc.
Last week, Government convened a training programme with women representatives from the country’s 10 provinces who are in turn expected to impart their knowledge and skills to peers in the constituencies.
The Minister of Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development, Mrs Nyasha Chikwinya, told The Sunday Mail Business that the training programmes will help two million women develop entrepreneurial skills and leadership roles.
Training programmes will cater for sectors such as agriculture, fishery and mining.
“We have rolled out (FEMCOM provincial chapter) to make sure that all women in business have an opportunity to link their businesses to markets in the Eastern and Southern region and to ensure that the programme yields the required results. Women from various provinces have knowledge in the agriculture, mining, tourism, fishery, tourism, transport and energy sectors and are keen to learn more from the various sectors.
“Therefore, after the training programmes, all the leaders from all the provinces are expected to share knowledge with their counterparts in their respective provinces,” said Minister Chikwinya.
FEMCOM, which was established in 1996 to help women in business to establish themselves as real entrepreneurs, has bespoke programmes that are meant to promote, encourage and serve the needs of women and their businesses.
In addition to providing a platform for exchanging ideas and experiences, it also works with national FEMCOM chapters in Comesa member states to facilitate and coordinate the creation of an enabling environment for women in business.
Most of the Federation’s initiatives targeting women are carried through the Business Incubator for African Women Entrepreneurs (BIAWE).
BIAWE intends to establish regional business incubators and provide business incubation services to entrepreneurs.
FEMCOM is currently leveraging on several Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) signed early this year between Comesa and its partners that include India, Turkey and Australia.
Zimbabwe is a member of both Comesa and the Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc).
It is believed that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) contribute to the bulk of economic activities in Africa.
However, most of them face challenges associated with limited entrepreneurial skills or experiences, lack of access to appropriate technology, lack of access to finance and low level of value addition.
