Africa-Press – Mauritius. A three-day workshop for women entrepreneurs, under the Regional Enterprise Competitiveness and Access to Markets Programme (RECAMP), and organised by the Association Mauricienne des Femmes chefs d’Entreprises (AMFCE), was launched, this morning, by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, Minister of Land Transport and Light Rail, Mr.
Alan Ganoo, in Port-Louis. The High Commissioner of Australia to Mauritius, Dr Kate O’Shaughnessy, the President of the AMFCE, Ms. Rima Ramsaran, and other personalities were also present on the occasion.
In his address, Mr. Alan Ganoo underlined that this training session bore testimony to the commitment of Mauritius to advance the Women Economic Empowerment agenda. He emphasised that women economic empowerment remained a sine qua non for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
According to him, the RECAMP training programme was an excellent opportunity to empower women entrepreneurs in the agro-processing and leather sectors, and would enable the participants to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge that would help them improve their businesses and ultimately their economic welfare.
Minister Alan Ganoo remarked that constant learning was a prerequisite for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to survive in a fast-changing global competitive environment, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. We should now adapt to a new normal which calls for new and innovative ways of restructuring businesses, he stated.
Furthermore, the Foreign Affairs Minister highlighted that the COMESA Federation of Women in Business (COMFWB) had, since its inception, undertaken a number of initiatives to support women entrepreneurs and promote programmes that integrate women into trade and development activities.
As a beneficiary of the COMFWB, he said, Mauritius is participating in a survey being conducted by the COMESA Secretariat to profile women and youth led SMEs in Mauritius, and to identify the key constraints they face with the aim of identifying market opportunities at country, regional, and international levels for the selected value chains.
As for the President of the AMFCE, Ms Rima Ramsaran, she recalled that the AMFCE was appointed to represent the COMFWB-Mauritius Chapter since September 2021, and stressed that this partnership had enormous potential to develop, empower and promote local women entrepreneurs.
She pointed out that the workshop was the AMFCE’s first initiative in Mauritius under this partnership. The workshop, she added, caters for the capacity-building of 22 women entrepreneurs operating in the agro- and leather industries to promote expert readiness.
Ms Rima Ramsaran observed that as compared to the other countries and Indian ocean islands, members of the COMESA, the community of Mauritian women entrepreneurs was lagging behind.
The mission of AMFCE, she stated, is to position Mauritian women entrepreneurs on the regional and international markets and to thereby create more market openings.
She asserted that the AMFCE devoted itself to building and sustaining a culture of entrepreneurship among local women entrepreneurs by assisting its members to grow and develop.
In addition, the President of AMFCE stressed that the RECAMP would enable local women to think beyond the local market and to instead think towards regional and international opportunities. It will focus on two themes: internationalisation of businesses, and financial considerations of regional and global businesses, she said.
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