By BRIAN HATYOKA –

THE Livingstone Institute of Business and Engineering Studies (LIBES) has expressed interest to partner with the Livingstone City Council to train street vendors in entrepreneurship skills so that they graduate and become small-scale entrepreneurs.
LIBES Board Chairperson Jocelyn Mutinta said her institute is ready to work with the local authority to train vendors so that they grow their businesses and ultimately start creating job opportunities for other people.
Ms Mutinta, who is also Zambia Tourism Board (ZTB) tourism promotion manager, said there was need for vendors to graduate from their usual vending activities and become small-scale entrepreneurs capable of mitigating poverty.
She was speaking in Livingstone on Monday at the Civic Centre when Southern Province Minister Nathaniel Mubukwanu addressed civil servants in the tourist capital.
“Already, some vendors who were removed from the streets of Livingstone have now become small scale entrepreneurs and they are refusing to be called street vendors.
“Most of them are even refusing to go back to the streets as they are currently running their small businesses successfully,” she said.
In response, Mr Mubukwanu supported the interest by LIBES saying it was important for vendors to graduate and become small-scale entrepreneurs.
“If we can have capacity building programmes for vendors, we can safely say we are on a sure way to addressing the issues of poverty effectively.
“Without adequate capacities, we will not achieve desired results as vendors need to grow their businesses and have a sustained income,” Mr Mubukwanu said.
He said he already had discussions with some banks in the province to come up with specific products tailored for vendors and other small scale traders.