Africa-Press – Eswatini. SEDCO has partnered with Maloma Colliery in facilitating a business awareness training for 216 people from nine different chiefdoms countrywide.
SEDCO is an acronym for Small Enterprises Development Company, a government parastatal whose mandate is to create, develop and promote small, micro and medium enterprises in Eswatini.
It promotes an entrepreneurial culture among emaswati through training and advocacy and to fulfil its mandate of entrepreneurship development, it provides business development services to add value to emerging and existing SMMEs.
SEDCO is under the jurisdiction of the ministry of commerce, industry and trade.
The report of the ministry’s first quarter performance for the 2022/2023 financial year states that the business awareness training between SEDCO and Maloma Colliery involved different tinkhundla centres, including Ngudzeni, Sithobela, Lubulini, Sigwe, Matsanjeni South, Somntongo and Sigwe. It was further mentioned that a successful entrepreneurial development training was also undertaken at Ekupheleni area where a number of emaswati benefited. Maloma Colliery is regarded as Eswatini’s leader in coal production operating in the Lubombo and Shiselweni regions.
SEDCO’s Communications Manager Mxolisi Dlamini, passed words of appreciation to Maloma management for the good initiative of empowering people in the rural areas about available business opportunities.
“Our partnership with Maloma Colliery was a really good initiative and we were able to train 30 groupings in nine different chiefdoms.
“We managed to achieve our target in terms of attendance and we say thank you to Maloma for the massive role they played in making this happen,” Dlamini said.
As a way forward, Dlamini further mentioned that they were currently in talks with Maloma management over taking a group of 30 people in the rural areas through a five-day entrepreneurship course.
“We are conscious of the fact that such an exercise comes with huge financial obligations but we remain hopeful that our partnership with Maloma will grow from strength to strength. What makes Maloma stand out is the fact that they have taken business training opportunities to people in the rural areas because such privileges are normally enjoyed by those in the urban areas.
We can only hope other companies will take a leaf from Maloma and support such initiatives,” he said.
Kumethula Member of Parliament (MP) Derrick Masuku, enquired in parliament some days ago if SEDCO had decentralised its activities to rural areas for the development of entrepreneurs in the most remote areas of the country.
In response, Commerce Minister Manqoba Khumalo assured the legislator that SEDCO had decentralised its activities to all four regions of the country. He said the enterprise has nine estates in Mbabane, Sidvwashini, Pigg’s Peak, Vuvulane, Nhlangano, Siteki, Manzini, Matsapha and Hlatikulu.
“The estates have enabled SEDCO to be closer to the public.
SEDCO has been using roadshows as a strategy to reach the rural areas. For example, a roadshow was held at the Kubuta Inkhundla in the Shiselweni region and there is another in the pipeline for another region. Furthermore, there have been strategic training that was brought to the communities at rural areas,” the minister said.
Khumalo further reported that there had been training of 540 people on record keeping in areas, including Dvokodvweni, LaMgabhi, Lusitini, KaNzameya, Ehhini, Kwaluseni, Mangcongco, Madlenya, Manyeveni, Magele, Hlutse and Nyakeni.
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