By Staff Reporter
WINDHOEK – Namibian Women entrepreneurs recently joined their peers in 21 other African countries as participants to the ACCESS! export development services for business women programme aimed at honing their international trade and business management skills.
Fully funded by the Ministry of Trade and Industry the programme is in line with the “Growth at home strategy”, and is geared for women with active businesses, a manufacturing base and the potential to increase their production capacity.
The Namibia Trade Forum (NTF) was chosen as the national focal point for its implementation while working closely with the International Trade Centre (ITC) in Geneva, Switzerland.
Lapitomhinda Hashingola, communications and liaison officer at the NTF, said: “ACCESS! is not just another women empowerment initiative but is designed to specifically address everyday challenges faced by Namibian business women.
“Here, we have a wonderful, practical programme which offers export development services, technical training, coaching and mentoring to our women entrepreneurs based on their business needs.”
Phase one is said to have started in September this year when 20 Namibian trainers with background in International Trade or Commerce completed an intensive two-weeks Training of Trainers (ToT) course conducted by regional lead trainers Linda Holtes (South Africa) and Dorothy Tuma (Uganda).
“Our candidate trainers completed a written test as well as practical training in the area of International Trade and Commerce. This was the requirement for them to qualify as accredited ACCESS! National Trainers.
“They performed very well and we are pleased that seven National Trainers have successfully completed this test to implement this programme with our NTF Secretariat, “ said Hashingola.
He explained that the objective is to each year help launch a Namibian-manufactured product in selected export markets. The programme has already trained 40 women.
The Namibia Trade Forum is an agency of the Ministry of Trade and Industry. The company was launched in June 2006 as a “Section 21 company”.
Its main objective is to institutionalise Public/Private dialogue and cooperation with emphasis on international and domestic trade as well as investment policies as stipulated by the fourth National Development Plan (NDP4).