By MILDRED KATONGO –

COPPERBELT Province will this year hold the first-ever women economic expo in Ndola to help promote women in small-scale businesses in the province.
Ministry of Gender and Child Development provincial coordinator Esther Chimimba said the event which will be held from August 16 to 23, this year is aimed at promoting and supporting women in small businesses.
Ms Chimimba said the expo targeted women because they were more in the informal sector with jobs associated with low-production, under development, low paying and poor working conditions.
“Copperbelt will for the first time hold the women economic expo to allow them showcase their entrepreneurial skills and also help promote their businesses, a lot of women are in the informal sector hence the need to help and support them by bringing the groups together to learn and sustain their businesses,” she said.
Ms Chimimba said this during preparatory meetings in Ndola ahead of the women economic expo.
She said stakeholders from the corporate world would be invited to help train the women in entrepreneurship.
“This will give an opportunity to women to excel in their businesses as they would be trained and gain more knowledge on how to sustain their businesses,” Ms Chimimba said.
She said women in agriculture and many others involved in business activities would be drawn from their respective districts to showcase their products.
“We are expecting 70 participants from 10 districts in the province, each district will send seven women to showcase and be trained at the expo. Exhibitors will be ambassadors of the district and linked to the regional expo. The best 10 will compete at national level,” she said.