KAGERA women entrepreneurs who are members of the Tanzania Women Chamber of Commerce (TWCC), have appealed to the government to intervene in the establishment of a Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) laboratory in the region in order to promote business growth.
Equally, they requested the Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation Dr Stargomena Tax to link them with other women entrepreneurs within the regional block.
Kagera Regional TWCC Chairperson, Ms Husna Mohamed said that for quite a long time women entrepreneurs have to carry huge loads of food commodities to Dar es Salaam or Mwanza City for certification.
“We appeal to the Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade to set up TBS laboratory in our region. This will help to save time and reduce costs, thus increase business volume,” she said.
Leticia Komugasho (24), has established a maize-milling industry in Kyerwa District. “We are facing lack of reliable markets and also appeal to the Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank (TADB) to avail us soft loans to improve our agricultural products,” she said.
She also cited poor transportation and storage facilities and low quality packaging as among problems facing her business growth.
However, she is hopeful that cooperation between the government and the private sector could help resolve the problem.
“Public-Private Partnership could invest in infrastructure development, like construction of pack houses and investment in agro-processing,” she said.
Meanwhile, Kagera Regional Administrative Secretary (RAS), Mr Toba Nguvila has appealed to residents in border areas to embrace business opportunities available in their areas.
Equally, he warned government officials who act as obstacles to business growth and development along the regional borders, saying cross-border businesses have proved worthwhile to the economy of many countries.
“Border between a country and another is an opportunity to people living in the area. People should use border areas to do business and improve their standards of living provided that they satisfy all the legal requirements.
Our role as the government is to make sure these people are benefiting. We should not be obstacles to them.
In other countries, people living along the border are rich because they are given opportunities to interact and do business provided that they follow all the laws. We should show them the way instead,” he said.
