By EPN Reporter
MBABANE – The Small Enterprise Development Company (SEDCO), in conjunction with Eswatini Energy Regulatory Authority (ESERA), is availing renewable energy initiatives to rural communities.
The communities set to benefit from this initiative are Mvundla and Bulimeni communities. The intention of the initiative of the two parastatals is to ensure that people from these communities have access to renewable energy.
Access to renewable energy is expected to be helpful in the businesses that are set to be established in these areas. The renewable energy project is known as the Africa Mini-Grid Project, and businesses are supposed to have access to this mini-grid.
The project rollout started with the introduction of the team to the members of the communities. An opportunity analysis was done to find business opportunities that could make use of the mini-grid that had been introduced to the communities.
In Mvundla, business opportunities identified included maize milling, sewing, salon, welding, and a bakery. In Bulimeni, there were certain business opportunities that were identified. They included a retail shop, maize milling, a bar, a salon, a sewing business, a pharmacy, a butchery, and a hardware shop.
The business opportunities were identified based on the unmet needs of the residents of the communities and their pain points. The business opportunities were also identified based on readily available economic resources, as well as the skills and knowledge that the residents would bring to the table.
SEDCO also identified potential business people in the communities, with 27 identified in Mvundla, while 35 were identified at Bulimeni. To assess their potential, SEDCO conducted a capacity gap analysis, which revealed competency gaps in areas such as entrepreneurship and business management, business planning, loan management, financial literacy, costing and pricing, bookkeeping, market targeting, research and acquisition, marketing and customer care, as well as business formation and governance.
Moving forward, SEDCO will conduct feasibility and viability studies for the proposed enterprises in the next stages of the project.
