In celebration of Women’s Month, 50 female entrepreneurs, based in the Gamagara Local Municipality, were selected to take part in a three-day ‘Women-in-Business’ training programme, held in early August. This business development initiative is aimed at assisting women running small businesses with new business compliance start-up kits.
With funding from REISA Solar, this workshop provided participants with business skills training, business planning and goals setting, equipping and empowering, and business start-up kits, and is implemented by the solar plant’s service partner, Angels Resource Centre and Lead Academy.
“Our communities need women-owned enterprises that are compliant and sustainable to participate in the mainstream economy. As most businesses in these communities are owned by men, creating equal opportunity requires female-owned enterprises to be viable,” said Veronique Isaacs, Community Operations Officer for REISA Solar.
The training consisted of a Lean Canvas workshop, with guest speakers from SARS, as well as a workshop for writing a business plan with guest speakers from the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA). The training concluded with a networking session and a celebratory luncheon.
“I found the programme to be very inspiring and an experience of a lifetime that I will cherish for years,” expressed Erene Delizia Ngonyoza, one of the Young Women in Business participants.
