Women entrepreneurs hone their skills

The Namibia Trade Forum has completed phase 1 of it’s practical export training programme with the training of the first twenty instructors. The two-week intensive course is the first step in the ACCESS! Trainer Certification process for all National Candidate Trainers.

The training stresses the importance of understanding the trading environment governing trade transactions between Namibia and other export destinations. This includes as the International Chamber of Commerce International Commercial Terms which govern the responsibilities of sellers and buyers in delivering goods under sales contracts across international borders. ACCESS! Regional Lead Trainers Dorothy Tuma from Uganda and Linda Holtes from South Africa  conducted the intensive 2-weeks Training of Trainers. Once trained, these trainers will offer entrepreneurs tailor-made business support services in the areas of technical training, coaching and counselling, based on the needs of their businesses. “The first step is to identify the business model used and subsequently thrash out constraints faced by the business especially those hindering the product from entering international markets,” Namibia Trade Forum spokesman, Lapitomhinda Hashingola said last week. The ACCES! export training programme identifies the separate business models of each candidate, at the same time identifying the barriers to growing their businesses. The main area of training is International Trade and Commerce, including export training, international commercial terms, SME development, product packaging and Intellectual Property Rights. Hashingola said the country-wide training is expected to start in the first quarter of 2015 after the Training of Trainers sessions have been completed. “The interest is very big, so much so that we continuously receive request from women entrepreneurs from various parts of our country. We ask for a bit of patience until the exact dates and locations of the training can be communicated. This should be in due course,” Hashingola said. The Namibia Trade Forum said it will support 60 businesswomen come March 2015 by empowering women entrepreneurs in realising their economic potential and contributing to poverty reduction and improved standards of living. The trainers all have backgrounds in trade support services, small and medium enterprises, higher education institutions and non-governmental organisations. The Ministry of Trade and Industry and the International Trade Centre in partnership with the ACCESS! Namibia aims to help female entrepreneurs to tap into new markets and to increase the ability to compete with exports.