SEDCO, IDCE to conduct flea market

BY MHLENGI MAGONGO

MBABANE – An opportunity for the local micro small and medium enterprises (MSME) to promote their products has presented itself.

The Small Enterprises Development Company (SEDCO) in partnership with the Municipal Council of Mbabane, Industrial Development Company of Eswatini (IDCE) and Financial Management Company (NBC) will conduct a flea market at Mbabane Market.

This was mentioned by SEDCO’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Khetsiwe Mhlanga in an interview yesterday.

Mhlanga said the aim of the flea market was to expose the MSME businesses and promote their products.

She said the participants (MSMEs) were mainly from Mbabane and SEDCO incubates.

Mhlanga said the flea market would be in November 30, 2022.

The CEO added that this week, they would be commemorating Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) 2022.

She said the GEW empowers nascent entrepreneurs and those who face systemic barriers to starting and scaling their own companies.

“Through GEW, we focus on four distinct theme areas to spotlight impactful voices and organisations — as well as inspiring activities that are helping empower entrepreneurs everywhere,” she added.

Magazine

Mhlanga also mentioned that as part of the activities for the week, they intend to introduce ‘The Entrepreneur’ magazine.

She said the book has been officially launched and was available at SEDCO’s offices countrywide.

“This magazine is intended for aspiring entrepreneurs and those who are already involved with entrepreneurship. It will serve as a road map to the continually evolving and dynamic career of entrepreneurship, providing in-depth information and insights on starting and building a sustainable enterprise in Eswatini.”

“It will also answer common entrepreneurship-related questions, addressing key topics such as business planning, online company registration, access to finance, taxation, business incubation, digital transformation and many more,” she added.

The CEO further mentioned that they would also be conducting training on the causes of business failure for 50 Inhlanyelo Funds beneficiaries from November 16, 2022.

The International Trade Centre (ITC) recently hosted a three-day workshop for SEDCO’s business development staff to strengthen their capacity in creating effective business support interventions.

Linking

The workshop focused on effective methodologies and tools for delivering adequate capacity-building support, providing effective business mentoring and coaching and linking clients to financiers.

This was part of the ITC’s ‘Promoting Growth through Competitive Alliances I’ project which will be supporting selected MSMEs in the fruit and vegetable value chain to address financial constraints and access finance.

Through this project, MSMEs will be trained in financial literacy, undergo an in-depth financial and nonfinancial assessment to identify their financial capacity and needs, will be coached and supported in the development of business plans and be linked to financial providers with the support of SEDCO’s business development staff.

Follow-up

This workshop was a follow-up of the first workshop organised in March 2022 at Sibane Sami Hotel in Ezulwini and covered the types of products and services to be provided by MSMEs to improve their access to capital, as well as sharing best practices for business development professionals in Africa and Asia and Europe.

SEDCO’s Corporate Communications Officer, Zamantolo Fakudze said the goal of the workshop was to better equip SEDCO’s business development staff on methodologies for attracting funding and identifying business financing opportunities, understanding the financial needs and risks of different value chains and understanding the ITC MSME capacity building methodology and tools for increased access to capital for MSMEs.

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