Women entrepreneurs acquire computer skills

Small business women will soon start using computers in their operations to ease processes and also be able to use new media platforms to market their enterprises. This follows the training in digital skills of selected women entrepreneurs, who will work as a core team of five trainers to train their colleagues. The four-day training of trainers workshop was organised by the African Women Entrepreneurship Programme (AWEP), a local non-profit organisation. “The participants have been equipped with skills on how to design websites and also use other computer programmes like Microsoft Excel and Adobe InDesign to help with business computing and making of brochures,” said Martine Umubyeyi, the chairperson of AWEP-Rwanda Chapter during the closure of the workshop at Kiyovu, Kigali on Friday.AWEP is an outreach, education and engagement initiative that targets African women entrepreneurs. Its aim is to increase women-driven trade in the sub-Saharan and also help them find market for their products in the US through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). Umubyeyi said that the graduates will help train about 75 business women across the country during the first phase of the project that will start soon.“Many women entrepreneurs cannot afford gadgets like computers. But also most of them do not know how to use computers to run their businesses better. So we are confident that this initiative will solve the concern,” she noted.Oda Nsabimana, a resident of Kabuga town in Kicukiro District and one of the beneficiaries, said the training would ease her business processes and help her reduce operation costs.“I spend a lot of money hiring people to design my business proposals, but now that I have acquired the skills, I will design them myself,” she said.