NAIROBI, Kenya
The Regional Centre for Enterprise Development (RCED) has released a report showing that its business mentorship programme has had a positive impact on promoting entrepreneurship across East Africa.
The report, released yesterday, shows that 3,215 business people have been mentored through the programme, which was introduced in June 2011 by RCED, a division of Inoorero University. The report shows that of these, 215 mentee enterprises have been impacted by the programme directly, while 3,000 young entrepreneurs were mentored through the Enablis Business Launch Pad competition.
RCED Project Officer Jacqueline Nthambi said the role of trained business mentors is to generate advice and provide technical support on growth opportunities and possibilities of financial and other support services to young entrepreneurs.
“Our programme is proof that business mentorship works. It is the last pillar of business development service provision to MSME’s”, she said. “It is the glue to the interventions such as access to finance, market linkages, business skills development and legal framework development”.
The course is targeted to all practicing and aspiring business consultants wanting to create a niche in the MSME sector, individual entrepreneurs with multiple enterprises and in need of mentoring their managers; loan/credit officers wishing to have an in-depth and unique undestanding of MSMEs; Relationship Officers/Managers working with Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSMEs).
According to the report, 87% of the mentee enterprises were formally registered, 45% of mentees reported a 78% increase in gross annual turnover, while 22% of mentees reported an increase in number of full-time employees by between one and four.
Additionally, 45% of the mentees reported an increase in the number of customers while 30% grew their business assets and 37% increased the level of business investments other than loans. 72% of mentees reported the overall mentorship support as excellent.
Prof. Henry Thairu, the Vice- Chancellor of Inoonero University, which runs RCED, said the training has boosted enterprise development by nurturing growth- oriented start ups as well as supporting existing ones into sustainable businesses.
The structured model for training and qualifying business mentors/advisors to support MSME’s was developed by Inoorero University with support from the Royal Danish Embassy in Nairobi in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation, through the Youth Entreprenuership Facility (ILO-YEF).
Other partners include the Kenya Private Sector Alliance, Enablis East Africa, Kenya Association of Women Business Owners and Africa Youth Trust. The goal of the programme is to contribute to the growth of sustainable Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in East Africa.
Leave a comment