PIC Chief Executive Officer, Kondwani Kachamba Ngwira, says the partnership will bridge the gap between businesswomen and the legal experts in the country.

“In Malawi, we have not utilized the presence of legal experts in business. It is unfortunate that we only need these experts when we mess up in business. The cost that we pay becomes too expensive than it would be when we avoided by engaging them from day one.

“They will provide legal counsel to all our female entrepreneurs in Malawi. The partnership will also help them to register their businesses. Most of our female entrepreneurs are running businesses that are not registered.

“Some of them have even registered wrong businesses groupings because of illiteracy. These challenges will be addressed through this partnership,” he said.

WLA Legal Aid Coordinator – Blantyre Chapter, Celeste Chibwana, says “when it comes to protecting the rights of women, it goes beyond gender based violence. We need to consider the other aspects of women rights; political, cultural and socio-economic aspects as well.

“We have women who are entrepreneurs and they need some legal assistance in regards to how register business and making sure their contracts are in order, for example. Granted the nature of work we do, we were excited to partner with PIC.”

PIC has existed for six years and has a dream to grow one million entrepreneurs by 2025.