A three-day Sales Exhibition aimed at inspiring, educating, and connecting women in business was held from 28 June 2024 to 30 June 2024 at the New Parking Space in Flacq. The Minister of Gender Equality and Family Welfare, Mrs Kalpana Devi Koonjoo-Shah attended and participated in the exhibition on Saturday 29 June 2024.
Organised by the National Women Entrepreneur Council (NWEC), under the aegis of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Welfare, the event saw the participation of some 60 women entrepreneurs with the primary objective of promoting locally manufactured products and enhancing the entrepreneurial talents of NWEC-registered women.
In a statement, Minister Koonjoo-Shah highlighted that NWEC was established in 1999 with the main goal of assisting women entrepreneurs, promoting entrepreneurship, and fostering a business culture to empower women in Mauritius. She noted that over 1000 women are currently registered with NWEC, benefiting from various support services, including business management guidance and product marketing strategies.
The Minister emphasised that women registered with NWEC are active in four main sectors: crafts, textiles, agri-food, and services. She underscored the primary objective of the exhibition as helping women entrepreneurs to sell their products effectively, generate more orders, and importantly, increase visibility. This forthcoming sales exhibition, she underlined, is more than just a marketplace; it is a celebration of women’s entrepreneurial spirit.
The exhibition provided a platform for women entrepreneurs to directly market and sell their products, facilitated meetings between potential buyers and sellers, enabled participants to generate additional orders, enhanced visibility for women-owned enterprises, and promoted NWEC’s economic empowerment services for women.
Various products were featured and sold during the exhibition, including Potted Plants, Handicrafts (such as pyrography, bags, decorative clay lamps, fancy jewellery, macrame, and crochet), Textiles (covering ladies’, men’s, and children’s wear, as well as bedsheets), Food items (such as Boulettes, noodles, local snacks, cane juice, popcorn, crepes, Rodrigues specialties, pickles, and spices), and Wellness Products (like Noni Oil, soaps, and infusion).
