Introduction
Women supporting women is a non-profit, non-government organization that was established in 2021 with the objective of supporting women entrepreneurs in Improving their business through various approaches such as entrepreneurship knowledge facilitation, trade network development, market access facilitation, exposure to investment opportunities and formulation of women groups with the objective of easy access of resources.
Women supporting women held a trade show in October that had participation from:
- Government regional authority -kinondoni district commissioner
- NGOs –TechnoServe, Women supporting women
- Government organization –Tanzania revenue authority, Unit trust of Tanzania (UTT)
- Financial Institutions –CRDB, NMB
- Companies- Puma company ltd
- 65 Women entrepreneurs (food industry, clothing, cosmetics, drinks)- (AINFP represented by 3 women food processors- AFCO, Nature ripe, and Soleo Tanzania)
AINFP’s Absalom Mwaipaja opening the session
Objectives Of The Trade Show
The general objectives of the trade show were facilitations of women entrepreneurs to access various services and opportunities such as;
- Development of trade networks
- Training on entrepreneurship skills
- Exposure to available access to finance opportunities
- Products promotions through trade shows
Opportunities From The Trade Show
Government support on women entrepreneurs
The Kinondoni district commissioner presented various government support to women entrepreneurship such as;
- Affordable loans to emerging and small women entrepreneurs –the government is ready to
support the women entrepreneurs with affordable loans that aim at improving the women
entrepreneurs’ business. - Women entrepreneurs’ partnership that will enable them to strengthen their business capacities
as well as easy access export opportunities that the government have signed with various
countries.
Other Opportunities
- The women entrepreneurs were able to receive the entrepreneurship skills from successful women entrepreneurs
- The women entrepreneurs were able to develop a trade network among themselves to strengthen their business operations and markets.
- The women entrepreneurs were able to receive the knowledge of tax management from Tanzania revenue authority (TRA) officer and were linked with TRA for any technical assistance regarding tax.
- The women entrepreneurs were provided with opportunities to invest their capital at UTT (unit trust of Tanzania) to help them expanding their capital.
- The women entrepreneurs were able to promote their products and increasing their publicity in which the 3 food processors from AINFP program as shown in a table below were able to promote their product through nutrition messaging to 59 participants (58 females) and a total of 13.709 kgs were sold during products promotion.
The table showing products sold during products promotion and nutrition messaging
| S/No | Name of food processor | Type of product sold | Amount Sold in kgs | Number of participants received nutrition messaging |
| 1 | Soleo | Peanut butter, blended nutritious flour, packed food nutrients | 6.92 | 34 ( 33 females) |
| 2 | Nature ripe | Sauces, cashew nuts | 4.289 | 14 ( 14 females) |
| 3 | AFCO | Bio fortified nutrition flour | 2.5 | 11 ( 11 females) |
| Total | 13.709 | 59 (58 females) |
TechnoServe’s role at the Trade Show:
TechnoServe played the facilitation role in collaboration with Women supporting women NGO to bring in women food processors to participate in tradeshow and workshop event for the purpose of accessing various opportunities and services such as development of trade networks, training on entrepreneurship skills, exposure to available access to finance opportunities and products promotions through trade shows.
The AINFP food processors Nature ripe (right) and AFCO (left) products promotion during the exhibition
Lessons/key take away
The women trade show event was one of the important stepping stone in helping the women entrepreneurs to get exposure to various opportunities such as access to finance, development of trade networks, products promotions and development of link with the government in accessing business development resources and support.
Conclusion
The women supporting women trade show and workshop provided the program important interactions with both government and non-government organizations that seem to be effective in helping the women entrepreneurs in addressing the current constraints of capital, market and exposure to various business opportunities.