By Bida Elly David
A number of businesswomen across the Country have raised concerns to the government and organizations over lack of capital for establishing enterprises to generate income for supporting their families and the community at large.
Last year, majority of business women in Juba blasted the Juba City Council as well as other tax collecting agencies for having failed to compromise their petty businesses over heavy and random tariffs.
They popped that the tax institutions have negated their call of compromise since most of their businesses were based on small scale segments meant to cater for the demands of their children.
Speaking to No.1 Citizen Daily Newspaper yesterday, Nidal Peter, a vegetable seller at Konyo-Konyo blasted the government for not being ashamed in collecting revenues from women who run small scale businesses to feed their offspring.
Nidal pointed out that they severally made their demand to the national authorities and organizations to grant them capital inform of loans for establishing businesses but their calls have been trashed and disregarded.
She added that business women in all the markets in Juba have been attending workshops on feminine rights to exercise commercial activities and how the income got should be used to generate other businesses but none of them rendered them financial support.
She stressed that women were tired of attending workshops and benefited nothing in return as facilitators and workshop organizers take advantage of being the indirect beneficiaries through their written reports.
“We are tired of attending workshops yaki. Business women in almost all the markets have heard a lot from workshop facilitators about the importance of business to women but none of them thought of giving us loans to expand our businesses.”
“Are they doing the workshops to benefit on our behalf or for the sake of filing reports of their work? I sell vegetables in this market with little profit in return yet tax agencies come forcefully to demand from us. What sort of mess is this for Christ sake,” she questioned.
Meanwhile Roda Nene, a fruit seller also slammed organizations and the government who promised to grant them loans for business but failed without genuine reasons.
“Last time, the government in partnership with other organizations during a workshop for business women promised to loan us money for starting businesses but up to now we don’t know where they have reached with their promises,”
“If they were not sure of things, let them not promise,” she said.
She pointed out that some women had already planned and designed the nature of business they would run after receiving the loan but all went in vain.
The women requested the government in partnership with organizations to speedily fulfil their promise for the sake of their children.
“We have kids who are being educated, medicated and fed thus if government help us, our children one day will help the nation and the nation will progress positively without any challenge.”
Women who run petty vegetable businesses are appealing to the government to exempt their petty businesses from taxes “since we only gain little from what we sell in the market,” they argued.