Maureen urges technology in stone crushing business

Maureen urges technology in stone crushing business
Written by Masuzyo Chakwe
Monday, January 26, 2009 5:39:03 AM

FORMER first lady Maureen Mwanawasa on Saturday said she sees a business opportunity in the women crushing stones at roadsides. And National Arts Council (NAC) chairperson Mulenga Kapwepwe said there was life after divorce.

During the women business and corporate world luncheon organised by the Prime Innovators team, an entity under the My Own Boss TV reality show, Maureen said unlike people that usually see poverty when they see women crushing stones at roadside, she sees a business opportunity.

“What is lacking is the structure to change their lives. What they need is technology to improve on that business because if we just leave it like that, investors will come with technology and take the business away from the women. So we should see crushing of stones as a business and not a poverty thing,” she said.

Maureen said women had been involved in commerce and trade and there had been barriers and obstacles all along.

She attributed the problem partly to the women’s mindset as well as the fact that they limit their business operations to “safe areas.”

“We need a paradigm shift in our scope of business. It is not only about women owning businesses but also about encouraging more women to enter the labour force in order to give a big boost to the success of the labour force,” she said.

Maureen said women should stop feeling that they had to be like men to succeed.

She also advised women not to seek to develop male strengths but to remain themselves.

She asked women to be open-mined and ready to learn and develop a reading culture, which she said was generally poor among women.

Maureen advised women not to feed in rumours and asked how many women had been to the Citizen Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) office to find out how to access funds.

She urged women to demand what was due to them like the 30 per cent land the government had allocated to women.

Maureen observed that women were growing their business in an environment, which was hostile to real issues affecting them, and proposed that they should have access to micro-credit with poverty and trust as collateral.

And Kapwepwe said when she left work in the mines, it was a time she was going through a divorce and only had her brains to use.

Kapwepwe advised women to use their brains and be disciplined.

And women filmmaker Catherine Kasekete said she was proud to be a woman with disabilities who had achieved her dream.

Lucy Sichone from the banking industry urged women not to give up if they had a dream.

Zambia Centre for Communication executive director Grace Chipanta, who first trained as a nurse and is also a widow, advised nurses and women to think ahead as the future held many things.