10 October 2008
Maputo — The African Development Bank (ADB) is financing, to the tune of four million US dollars, a project to empower and develop women's business skills in the central Mozambican provinces of Manica and Sofala.
According to the Minister of Women's Affairs and Social Welfare, Virgilia Matabele, the projects, launched formally on Thursday in the Sofala town of Dondo, intend to support the small scale processing of agricultural produce in the districts covered.
The project should benefit 350 women's associations, and promote processing in Dondo, Nhamatanda, Gorongosa and Caia districts in Sofala, and Gondola, Sussundenga, Guro and Barue districts in Manica.
Matabele told AIM that, apart from specific actions in the area of production, the project will also promote training courses for women in business management, basic accountancy, and the use of processing technologies.
She said "this project will contribute to increased and diversified food production, and to processing and marketing it. It will improve the diet and the life of the population. It will stimulate the use of new production, storage and processing strategies, through establishing agro-industrial processing micro-projects".
Under the project, some groups of producers will receive equipment such as presses to produce vegetable oil, fruit processing machines and flour mills.
For four years it will be implemented as a pilot project in Manica and Sofala, after which Matabele's ministry hopes to expand it to other provinces. Matabele regarded the project as part of the government's efforts to reduce poverty and to transform rural districts into poles of development.
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