DIMAPUR — The Entrepreneurs Associates (tEA) conducted an ‘Uplifting women street vendors’ programme for women street vendors at its main office in Kohima on Tuesday.
According to an update, the programme commenced within an intimate setting with four women street vendors and their family members.
Neikule Doulo, executive director of tEA, apprised the women on the organisation’s motivation behind the institution of the programme and initiating the provision of zero interest loans.
She stated that this support sprung forth during the COVID-19 pandemic when the majority of the street vendors’ businesses were in complete disarray. The zero-interest loans served as a window for the women to restart their businesses and recoup what they had lost.
She also stressed how women street vendors in Nagaland have been in their profession for decades but witness very little to no growth in their businesses due to a lack of financial cognisance.
Neikule also recounted how tEA had paid the daily wage of the street vendors for the day during its initial steps of implementing the programme in 2017 to demonstrate the seriousness and commitment of the project.
She concluded her speech with a word of encouragement on how the women should continue saving to avail bigger loans in the future.
All four beneficiaries were recipients of the zero-interest loans.
“This financial support will be instrumental in expanding the inventory of their current businesses, further enabling them to afford a quality lifestyle for their respective families,” it stated.
Sentinaro Walling, supervisor of the Entrepreneurs Associates Thrift and Credit Cooperatives Federation Limited, who moderated the programme, spoke on the need for women street vendors to habituate savings, especially since it is their first time receiving the loan.
She also intimated the women on the different schemes and attractive interest rates offered to savers under its cooperative vertical, which is registered under the Government of Nagaland.
The ‘Uplifting women street vendors’ is a flagship programme of the Entrepreneurs Associates, launched in October 2017, to empower women involved in the network of marketing farm produce. It engages with women street vendors, producers who also sell their yields and aggregators who link rural products with the urban markets.