BICYCLE INITIATIVE TO BOOST WOMEN’S BUSINESSES

Women Initiative (NWI) is this year expected to empower over 700 women with bicycles to make their businesses cost effective.

NWI founder, Namakau Sianga observed that most small-scale business women spent a lot of money in transporting their goods from the source to markets.

In an interview with the Daily Nation in Livingstone, Ms Sianga, who is Livingstone Chamber of Commerce president, said the hardships that women go through in doing business, had prompted her organisation and its partners to help the women.

“We appreciate the commitment by the women, we have come up with a programme which is going to help them to reduce the cost of doing business by simply transporting their goods on a bicycle. This will make their businesses cost effective,” she said.

Ms Sianga said she is confident that once women are empowered with the bicycles, the cost of doing business would be reduced. She said she was hopeful that the savings that the women will make would enable them reinvest in their businesses.

“We are confident that the women are going to see the impact of transporting goods using bicycles for their businesses. We know that the women move long distances to get their goods to the market,” Ms Sianga said.

She said in implementing this initiative, she would identify a bank which would be able to give her organisation the bicycle loans for the women.

Ms Sianga said she was working with partners from Europe who were supporting the women empowerment programmes in the district.