Embu women to receive business training

Traders at the Embu bus park. FILE PHOTO | CHARLES WANYORO |

What you need to know:

  • The women are being trained on marketing, record keeping, stock taking, costing, proper customer care and purchasing.

About 300 women from Embu County are set to benefit from a financial management training programme aimed at enabling them run their businesses profitably.

The women, who have been selected from across the county and with representation of the youth and disabled, are being trained on marketing, record keeping, stock taking, costing, proper customer care and purchasing.

County Executive for Administration and Public Service Pamela Kiarie said the programme is the initiative of the county government and Growth Oriented Women Enterprises and aims to help them expand their enterprises as well as make their ventures profitable.

Ms Kiarie said the seven module training is tailored to equip the women with skills that would enable them manage their businesses to move from micro to small enterprises.

She Kiarie said youths, women and people with disabilities have also been unable to access 30 per cent of government tenders as they lack the capacity to qualify for them.

Ms Kiarie said most businesses run by women failed to rise from middle level as they failed to plan or keep records, making it hard to know whether their ventures were profitable.

She said poor bookkeeping and financial management was locking entrepreneurs out of accessing access credit from financial institutions.

“These entrepreneurs secure loans but default since the businesses are making losses,” she said.

Ms Kiarie called on residents to organise themselves into groups and register companies so that they can benefit from county government tenders.

She said they will be in a better position to source credit to able to benefit from the government tenders that had been earmarked for youths, women and people with disabilities.

“People should stop complaining that there are no opportunities and embrace opportunities provided by the government to empower themselves, such as the Uwezo Fund, Youth and Women enterprise funds among others to establish businesses and make their livelihoods,” she said.

Growth Oriented Women Enterprises programme coordinator Mugure Githuku said the training is tailored to equip the women with skills that would enable them manage their businesses to move from micro to small enterprises.