Mutasa pledges to empower women

Dr Mutasa made the commitment after delivering a lecture on entrepreneurship to pastors’ wives from across the country.
The IBWO president, a successful businesswoman in her own right, met the aspiring businesswomen at the Harare Theological College, in Hatfield, last week.
She lectured the clergymen’s wives on identifying entrepreneurial projects, raising funding and marketing of products.
The initiative is in line with the United Nations charter on poverty alleviation through empowering women. Dr Mutasa said this had the full support of President Mugabe.
After the training they received, the women are expected to impart the skills they acquired to their colleagues.
Dr Mutasa felt obliged to give back to the community by helping to uplift other aspiring businesswomen.
“I taught them how to identify projects, preparing a business proposal that they require to access loans from banks. But I emphasised the fact that they need to fully understand the business proposal before sending it to the bank,” she said.
The budding entrepreneurs were advised to keep in mind the fact that projects could start small and grow over time.
However, the women were taught to identify markets for their products before embarking on any project.
“They should not start on a project before identifying a market and have the right marketing strategy for their products. They should also have carried out what is known as the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis.
“In the first few weeks of starting up, they should hold weekly meetings to review their business to see whether they are making progress. If not, they should identify the problem and correct it,” she said.
Dr Mutasa, a strong advocate for women empowerment, believes women should actively participate in Government’s ongoing indigenisation and economic empowerment programme to avoid being left behind.
“In that regard, I told them that information is power, without it you will not be able to know what is happening around you,” she said.