Governments urged to invest in women empowerment
AFRICAN governments should come up with policies that are favourable to women empowerment, a Kenyan entrepreneur Ms Emmanuella Aboa has said.
Ms Aboa, Pan-Africanist, strategy consultancy and a psychologist, said this while addressing women in entrepreneurship during conference in Bulawayo on Wednesday.
Her sentiments come at a time when the world is celebrating Global Entrepreneurship Week.
Global Entrepreneurship Week is celebrated in the second week of November and this year it is running from November 14–20.
During the week, people from different countries come together to find ways to boost economic growth.
Ms Aboa said women empowerment helps in national, continental and global economic growth.
“If we are talking about development of a country, we can’t do anything successful without the government. So I encourage African governments to come up with policies that are in favour of women especially women entrepreneurs,” she said.
Ms Aboa said partnership between government and the private sector is very important.
“I encourage governments to invest in empowering women by availing resources to develop women led businesses,” she said.
Ms Aboa said if a woman is empowered, she is able to help economic and social development of not only her family but society as well.
Mrs Victoria Nxumalo conducting a lesson with some of the mebers of Girls in STEM Trust.
“Women due to their motherly nature tend to give back to society whenever they are empowered hence communities benefit a lot from women empowerment,” she said.
Executive director of Girls in Stem Trust Ms Victoria Nxumalo applauded the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development for coming up with different initiatives, which are meant to empower women and young girls.
“I want to applaud Ministry of Women affairs, we are aware that there is a drive towards promoting SMEs in Zimbabwe, which is absolutely amazing, but we want to create an environment, that will allow women to thrive in their businesses,” said Ms Nxumalo.
President Mnangagwa
Girls in STEM Trust is a non-profit organisation that invests in girls and young women in Africa to help them develop digital and entrepreneurship skills that will build future successful careers in all facets of STEM.
President Mnangagwa’s administration has prioritised women empowerment programmes as evidenced by such initiatives as the establishment of the Zimbabwe Women Micro-Finance Bank.
Women have also been appointed in various positions of authority as part of a cocktail of measures to empower them. –-chronice.co.zw
