Online Reporter
Lovemore Kadzura
Post Reporter
THE Government is planning to introduce a quota system to reserve certain construction tenders for women as part of efforts to increase participation of female entrepreneurs in the infrastructure development sector.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development, Engineer Joy Makumbe, said the proposed measure will create more opportunities for women-owned businesses to access Government construction projects and contribute to economic development.
She was speaking during a plenary session at the Public Service Commission Retirement Conference, last week.
Engineer Makumbe challenged female entrepreneurs to take advantage of opportunities available in the construction sector and register their companies to compete for Government tenders.
She said women should not shy away from the industry, traditionally viewed as male-dominated, but position themselves to also benefit from infrastructure programmes being rolled out across the country.
“If we do not see something and realise that an opportunity is there, people tend to chicken out and think that it does not happen. There have not been many women contractors that have been doing any work in Zimbabwe. Whether one is capable or not they just say I do not think I can pull through as men are already there doing the construction. We have women contractors who are actually bidding for the work and getting the contracts, do the work and finish it before the male contractors. Each time we have events as the ministry, we make it a point that we invite these women to talk and share their experiences. We want to see more women participating in construction. It is a fact that women do not have capital and when we ask for title deeds most women do not have. It means we are locking them out of those contracts at the grassroots,” said Engineer Makumbe.
She said Government has been encouraging joint ventures to improve access.
“We have been preaching the issue of joint ventures encouraging women to come up together as three or four companies and then bid. We have made progress on the process to introduce quotas on some tenders, which will be exclusively for women. These are some of the strides we have taken to empower women. Besides construction there is also the consulting part of construction where women can do the designs, which is cleaner as most women prefer clean jobs,” she said.
She urged women entrepreneurs to improve their capacity, comply with procurement requirements and form partnerships where necessary to enable them to undertake bigger projects.
The move is expected to widen economic opportunities for women while promoting inclusive participation in the implementation of roads, bridges, buildings and other public infrastructure projects.
