Trader’s life changed by skills training

AFTER Bulawayo Vendors and Traders Association (BVTA) conducted Financial Literacy Trainings, Vendors Voice profiled Mrs Lusinga, a beneficiary of the capacity building and skills training programme. Jotina Lusinga is a successful detergent and cordial juices maker. Through the Financial Literacy Trainings, participants were taught the basics of developing their ideas into a business in order to become self-sufficient especially in such times where their usual means of making money have been disturbed. One of the ideas discussed during the training was manufacturing of detergents and cordial juices, products which remain in high demand in most households. Previously, Lusinga was an Informal Cross Border Trader (ICBT) and owned a Pre School, however due to COVID-19, borders were closed restricting the movement of ICBTs and schools were closed in March earlier this year when the lockdown was implemented as a way of containing the spread of the virus. Lusinga then turned to manufacturing cordial juices and detergents like petroleum jelly as a way of earning a living. “I would like to thank BVTA for giving us business ideas, I would not have come up with this alternative of producing cordial juices and detergents if I was not a BVTA member,” Lusinga told Vendors Voice. Lusinga stated that since her previous businesses had been disturbed by the lockdown, the government has not done anything to assist vendors and informal traders. The cushioning fund that they were promised five months ago has not been disbursed up to day despite the fact that most informal traders are in serious need of the funds. Lusinga told Vendors Voice that she is no longer making profit like she used to back then before COVID-19 struck, however, the profit she is getting is sustaining her day to day living with her family. “We are now living from hand to mouth, the money we get is not money you can budget on,” she said. Vendors and informal traders have been hit hard by the COVID-19 induced lockdown that started on March this year. Their sources of income have since dwindled but through BVTA trainings like this one, they are doing their best to find strategies around the situation in order to eke a living.

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