Women entrepreneurs benefit from US-funded program

TANAKA FETINANDI

At least 37 women entrepreneurs from Harare have graduated from the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE), a project funded by the United States government which is designed to enhance the skills of women entrepreneurs.

Public Diplomacy Officer of US Embassy in Zimbabwe, Becca Archer-Knepper ,said  the program promotes and develops skills to women entrepreneurs while teaching them how to access opportunities and ensure they have necessary resources to participate in economic activities.

“We are very thrilled, we were able to get the Harare graduation for the AWE Program,” she said.

Over a hundred women participated in the programme.

“Today,  37 of them finished the program and they graduated and we offered two women seed funding of US$1 000 to grow their businesses.”

She said the whole idea behind the AWE program was to help women develop the skills that they need to run successful businesses.

One of the graduates, Nyashadzashe Maphosa, who runs CanChem Hygiene Services (Pvt) Ltd commended the US government for the initiative she said has contributed to the growth of her business.

“So CanChem started running about five years ago, we manufacture cleaning detergents and at the same time we distribute cleaning detergents and we also offer cleaning services as well.”

“So what I’m going to do with theUS$1 000 is just going to be injected into that project so that at least we get better results, so it is going to add to that.”

The graduates successfully completed the 13-week course, which combines online training modules with in-person mentorship and facilitation.

Related