TWCC empowers women on cross border trade

TWCC Executive Officer Mwajuma Hamza told The Guardian that the chamber has already embarked on training 180 beneficiaries, an initiative aimed at improving the quality of their products for competitive domestic and international markets.

“As I speak to you, we have already received a total of Sh380m from UN Women Tanzania that would be used to train women and youths on various issues relating to cross border trade and help them benefit from regional and international trade,” she said.

The targeted women are those involved in trades at border posts such as Kabanga, Namanga, Holili, Sirari, Rusumo and Kigoma.

Besides, TWCC will provide training on packaging, branding and supply chain management to 150 female entrepreneurs and youth at Namanga, Holili and Kigoma to improve quality of products and inspire market competitiveness.

The training will be offered to both the young and female entrepreneurs free of charge as an empowerment drive on cross border trade.

Since June 2015, a total of 300 female entrepreneurs have benefited through the project in- terms of training and local exhibitions.

Both women and the youth were trained on international trade, formalizing trade process by registering their business with Business Registration and Licensing Agency (BRELA) including requirements and sources of finance, packaging, branding and supply chain management.

It also entails rules and regulations for crossing the border as well as helps them to create one new platform at Kabanga border to enable regular dialogue on issues affecting them in cross border trade.

“During the training we train women to organize in groups or networks, we tell them that women should mobilize themselves in groups to have one strong voice in advocacy and lobbying for solutions to the problems they encounter while doing cross border businesses,” said the executive officer.

“Through speaking in a single unified voice they can affect policy and reduce the major impediments that affect them in cross border trade,” she said.

Earlier, most female entrepreneurs used to operate with neither any knowledge of cross border regulations nor their rights, giving room for emergence of corrupt elements.

She explained that supporting female traders to form networks would help them demand their rights for protection, social services and business information services, and hence benefit from regional integration and trade.

According to the monitoring and evaluation that was conducted by TWCC in all areas where it has offered training, most female traders have managed to register their businesses with BRELA, obtain TIN Number from TRA as well as understand the process or rules of formalizing business and availability of standards from TBS and TFDA.

The main goal of the monitoring and evaluation was just to identify if the training that was offered to them has helped them to improve their businesses.