“VICOBA can be a powerful instrument in fostering small scale manufacturing sector towards building robust industry economy,” said the minister during opening of VICOBA product exhibition at Mnazi Mmoja grounds in Dar es Salaam at the weekend. Small and medium scale industries are important platform in creating jobs and contribute to building strong manufacturing sector, he said.
Tanzania with 100,000 VICOBA groups has made this international day for poverty eradication to be the national VICOBA day carrying the theme ‘VICOBA for Empowerment and Poverty Reduction’.
He commended the National Economic Empowerment Council (NEEC) for supporting VICOBA groups while urging other institutions in his ministry to assist the product groups increase efficiency.
He also requested SIDO to allocate a pavilion and set up processing machine so that groups that don’t have machine could use it until they build capacity to buy their own.
The NEEC Executive Director, Ms Beng’i Issa, said the exhibitions were the first at the national level and had been held in Dar es Salaam by joining the local team members and in the coming years eyeing to take place at the regional, district and grass roots levels.
“The goal of doing this is to send a specific message to the people in the fight against poverty,” and this is possible through small industries where these groups are focused on production,”she said.
She said VICOBA group started in the year 2000 in response to capital management for savings and acquiring small soft loan and 80 per cent of its members for the time being are female.
He said the Council collaborates with all government empowerment funds in facilitating the groups, and the exhibits have provided an opportunity to show the products they produce.
Managing Director of Women’s Bank (TWB), Mr Japhet Justine said his bank is a close partner to the number of groups, so more than 80 per cent of his clients are women from the VICOBA.
No comments:
Post a Comment