Great Zimbabwe Times

Women Entrepreneurship Day Organization (WEDO) has facilitated a one week long training workshop for 90 women from small and medium business enterprises. The Entrepreneurship Day Organization collaborated with Homelink Finance for sponsorship and Great Zimbabwe University for the course modules. The participants drawn from both rural and urban business environments were trained in aspects of initiating, running and growing a business through topics such as Business Plan writing, Record Keeping, Business Communication and Marketing. WEDO Zimbabwe Ambassador Angeline Mikiri said the training workshop is part of WEDO’s 2019 calendar of programs. ‘As WEDO, part of our mandate is to be a forum where women can come together and collectively tackle issues of financial inclusion through advocacy and training in financial literacy.    We observed that most of our members are not able to grow their enterprises beyond cottage levels due to lack of access to financial support. In other word

By Lilian Muungani Members of the Chinyamukwakwa irrigation scheme in Chisumbanje, Chipinge District grade their tomatoes for the market. Strive Masiyiwa has thrown rural women like these a life line through the USD100 million Rural Finance Loan. Veronica Mashesheshe of Chiwara communal lands in Gutu, is very good at roasting nuts for peanut butter production. For a long time, she has thought of packaging huge volumes of salted roasted nuts for supply to local supermarket chains as well as supplying big companies with peanut butter for onward branding. But without a bank to provide startup capital to increase production levels, this desire remained an almost unachievable dream. Veronica’s circumstances represent the common point of desperation among rural women in Zimbabwe- the story of skill, passion and energy without finances needed to translate this into sustainable livelihoods. The infrastructural terrain in most rural areas comprises clinics, roads and heavily beer stoc

Homelink supports Women Entrepreneurs, unveils massive low income earners’ housing project   Homelink Managing Director Mr. Desmond Ali says he has fewer loan repayment headaches when handling women led enterprises and as such the local finance institution has niched its operations on supporting women entrepreneurs.   Speaking at the Women Entrepreneurship Day commemorations held in Masvingo recently, Mr. Ali revealed that investing in women positively impacts their communities. ‘Business ownership by women at small, medium and large enterprise levels allows them to earn an independent income and contribute financially to their households and their communities.’ Mr. Ali further noted that incomes earned by women create a positive impact in their families in terms of health, education, food and clothing hence contributing to poverty eradication, allowing families to have access to a decent standard of living. ‘If women participate in economic activity and control productive a