/ NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Release No. 002/2010/AFR / Contacts
In Washington:
Herbert Boh
+1 202 473-3548

In Dar es Salaam:
Nicodemus Odhiambo Marcus +25522 2163246

Business Incubator Supports Women Entrepreneurship in Tanzania

DAR ES SALAAM, September 13, 2010–Eight hundred fifty Tanzanian women will benefit from a new program that increases their business and financial management skills, improves their products and expands their markets.

Mpango wa Kukuza Ujasiriamali na Biashara kwa Wanawake (MKUBWA) in Kiswahili is an incubator that is supported by a US$ 1.35 million grant from an Italian Trust Fund managed by the World Bank.

It targets growth-oriented micro and small enterprises run by women in Dar es Salaam and Kibaha in the Coast Region. The program will be launched on Wednesday, 15th September, 2010 at Diamond Jubilee Hall.

“Promotion of women entrepreneurship is a catalyst for local communities’ development. It provides women with the opportunity to unlock their potential and helps them play an active role in the economy.” stated John Murray McIntire, World Bank Country Director for Tanzania, Uganda, and Burundi.

Through a flexible program tailor-made for each woman’s different circumstances, MKUBWA aims at increasing women’s social and economic empowerment, improving the well-being of their households and decreasing their risk of falling into poverty; and improving children’s lives, in particular with respect to food and education.

“Economic empowerment of women makes sense for the improvement of living conditions of the population.”said Francesco Catania, the Italian Ambassador to Tanzania. “When women have the chance to earn decent incomes, the well-being of their familiesimproves, and the communities benefit.”

Support to female entrepreneurship is not only meaningful in the context of economic empowerment. Empirical evidence suggests that higher participation of women in the labour market is associated with a range of positive outcomes in the non-economic sphere, particularly with regard to fertility and outcomes for children. In addition, analyses suggest that poverty, economic dependence, and gender inequality contribute to the vulnerability of girls and women and to the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Access to credit is one of the main constraints for all entrepreneurs and for women in particular. The issue is most often addressed through microfinance programs, promotion of access to flexible loans or dedicated lines of credit for women entrepreneurs provided by regular financial institutions.

The success of entrepreneurial activities depends also on a range of non-financial elements, such as training, financial literacy, market research, product development and marketing. MKUBWA will therefore not offer credit to the entrepreneurs, but will support the individual entrepreneurs in the identification of their financial needs and financial products suitable to their enterprise strategies.

MKUBWA is implemented by the Tanzania Gatsby Trust (TGT), in partnership with the Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship Development (IMED), SIDO/Women Entrepreneurship Development (WED) and Kwanza Collection Company Ltd. Technical assistance is provided by the Italian Association for Women in Development (AIDOS).

During the first year of the project, 550 participants will receive management and technical training, business support and on-site coaching and mentoring, in order to strengthen their management skills, develop their products and expand their markets.

Another 300 women entrepreneurs are currently on a waiting list, and are in the meanwhile receiving complementary information sessions on issues that they identified as relevant such as women's rights, HIV/AIDS and family planning.

MKUBWA is designed as a pilot, stressing the quality of the program as a knowledge-generating activity, which will provide useful information to evaluate the effectiveness of similar interventions in the future. The impact evaluation – a key component of this project – will assess the effectiveness of the Incubator to learn lessons and identify issues to be addressed.

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