adminPamela Shumba Senior Reporter
THE Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) is a strong foundation for women to grow in different businesses and promote the country’s economy, the president of the Federation of Grassroots Women’s Club, Betty Mtero has said.Mtero, who is also the Zanu-PF director of business development and liaison, said the party was exhibiting for the first time as it seeks to stimulate export and trade in line with the country’s economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset).
The grassroots empowerment project, which operates under the Zanu-PF banner, is exhibiting different products from the various projects run by women.
“This is a great opportunity for us as women to develop our businesses and operate at full capacity. We’re exhibiting for the first time and we’re already seeing the benefits of being part of the ZITF. People are showing a lot of interest in our products,” said Mtero.
“Our main obejective is to promote exports and trade and help women to be more exposed and be able to operate at international level. Women have been disadvantaged for a long time but we’re happy that exhibitions such as the ZITF give us an opportunity to promote our businesses.”
Mtero said they were looking forward to an intensive exchange programme with other exhibitors where they expect to learn new things.
“We’re visiting other exhibitors to see what we can learn from them and we’ve seen exciting handiwork that we hope to emulate. We’re also receiving visitors who are admiring our products.
“This is a good sign that with hard work we can achieve our plans to operate at international level. Besides promoting export and trade, we also plan to utilise this opportunity to promote Zim-Asset and improve the country’s economy,” said Mtero.
She added that their products from the agriculture section also promoted good health.
“We’re concerned about good health and this is why we’ve taken it upon ourselves to produce and promote traditional crops such as millet, sorghum and rapoko as well as peanut butter. These products have become popular because of their health benefits,” said Mtero.
She said some women from her association had gone as far as China for training in different types of businesses to improve their skills.
One of the women who benefited from the training programmes, Chenai Chitate commended the ZITF, saying she was optimistic that she would be a better businesswoman afterwards.
“I was trained in China to produce beautiful embroidered interior décor material. I’ve brought samples of my products here and the response is overwhelming. I’m glad to be part of the ZITF and I’m positive that my business will grow in terms of customer base. I’m also looking forward to training women who are interested in embroidery so that our project grows,” said Chitate.
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