Women have the drive to progress: grant recipient
THE Ministry of Trade, Co-operatives, Small and Medium Enterprises and Communications have assisted five women entrepreneurs under its Trade Enhancement Programme (TEP) recently. Among them was a beaming 48-yearold, Elizabeth Sawaki, who runs a catering business NaMatavuvale Catering, a business she operates from home on order basis.
Originally from Lau but raised in Ba, Mrs Sawaki is a pastry chef by trade and has worked in the hotel industry for over 10 years. “I thought of being an entrepreneur because I had the drive to do so and applied for the (TEP) to assist me with my business,” she relayed.
“I am grateful to the Ministry of Trade for providing me with a $1,000 grant to assist me in my venture.”
“Since this is a family business, the only people employed are my husband, my son and I,” Mrs Sawaki added. She said they are more inclined to cooking fresh authentic Fijian food and preparing seafood toss and Asian food as lunch packs.
“We cook for our customers to give them what they actually crave for and are always open to their feedback,” she said. “We have varieties and don’t cook the same meals everyday so on Monday to Wednesdays we have simple meals like roti curry packs, sandwiches, stuffed babakau with minced filling, curry eggplants with potato and stir-fries but on Thursday and Friday we have the seafood toss and fish.”
“We do free deliveries in the Suva area and are mostly based in the Toorak and Government buildings side and the areas majority of the food orders are from,” she added.
She highlights that they started off as a cake business in 2021 which was a side hustle as she used to be employed in the tourism sector then.
“My husband and son used to do the baking and I would just decorate and the customers would come and pick it up and since this was going well, it gave me an idea to pursue this full time,” she said.
“We started with only $50 and launched the catering business in May last year – which is slowly growing.”
“We have been advised by the ministry that someone can assist us in doing our bookkeeping and we are very grateful for that.” she added.
Mrs Sawaki shared her three-year plan to buy a piece of land between Suva and Navua so that she could have a good set up for a restaurant and a car wash on the side.
“The ladies at home can definitely make money this way if they stand up for themselves and push for a better standard of living,” she advised.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade, Co-operatives, Small and Medium Enterprises and Communications, Manoa Kamikamica, speaking at the handover ceremony, said that this initiative supports businesses in the micro category that need capital injection to grow their businesses.
“Since inception in 2022, the TEP portal has received 4,170 applications online out of which 71 per cent were women applicants,” DPM Kamikamica said.