By Dickson Bandera
Women, women’s groups and aspiring female entrepreneurs are being encouraged to visit the National Training Centre for Rural Women (NTCRW) stand at the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show in Harare and explore practical skills that can be turned into businesses and sustainable sources of income.
The call is being made under the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development, which is using the 2026 Agricultural Show to showcase opportunities available through the NTCRW.
With the bold message “Tired of Asking for Money? Start Producing!”, the centre is inviting women to move beyond seeking opportunities and develop the practical capabilities required to create them.
Women visiting the stand at Nelson Mandela Hall can learn more about training programmes covering food processing, stock-feed production, clothing and textile production, mushroom production, fish farming, soap and detergent making, as well as other skills-development programmes.
The initiative comes at a time when Zimbabwe is placing greater emphasis on women’s economic participation, entrepreneurship and the growth of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
The 2026 Zimbabwe Agricultural Show, running from August 24 to 29 under the theme “Powering Growth: Where Agriculture, Technology and Commerce Converge,” provides a platform for businesses, farmers, entrepreneurs, Government institutions and investors to connect and explore opportunities.
The Show will be officially opened on Friday by Namibian President Dr Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, adding a regional dimension to an event that has traditionally served as a meeting point for agriculture, commerce and industry.
For women entrepreneurs, the NTCRW initiative also comes against the backdrop of Zimbabwe’s inaugural National Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Cooperatives Indaba, held in Harare in July.
The indaba brought together Government, entrepreneurs, financial institutions and other stakeholders to examine how the MSME sector can contribute more significantly to economic growth and the attainment of Vision 2030.
The focus on women is particularly important because Vision 2030 envisages an economy in which women are empowered to participate meaningfully in production, enterprise development and wealth creation.
The Ministry of Women Affairs has identified the economic empowerment of women as an important component of building resilient communities and an SME-driven economy.
The NTCRW training programmes offer a practical route towards that objective. Rather than limiting empowerment to access to financial assistance, the initiative places emphasis on skills, production and enterprise development.
For a woman who learns food processing, makes detergents, produces stock feed or grows mushrooms, the training can provide the foundation for starting a small enterprise, supplying a market and eventually creating employment for others.
The invitation at the Agricultural Show is therefore aimed directly at women who want to take the next step — from having a skill to developing a product, from producing for the household to producing for the market, and ultimately from seeking income to creating it.
Women attending the Agricultural Show are encouraged to visit the NTCRW stand at Nelson Mandela Hall and find out how the available training programmes can help turn their skills into businesses.
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