230 SME UPSKILLED WITH INVEST & GROW MONEY CONCEPT

By Sandra ULG, Port Moresby

The Small and Medium Enterprises Corporation (SMEC) for the first time has introduced the Invest and Grow Money Concept under the Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) training Program that has seen 230 participants graduate on Friday October 18th.

The 230 participants (213 women and 17 men) are from five church-based groups in NCD are the first batch to go through this concept that was conducted in 2weeks.

SMEC Director of BACB Division Ms. Diane Guria whilst giving the keynote speech said it is anticipated that with the new concept participants will start their own micro to to small businesses immediately after the training unlike in the past because this time soft loans will be made available.

Ms. Guria says SMEC has committed K100,000 for the roll out of this Invest and Grow Money in NCD. From this funding K20,000 each will be made available to the five church groups and it will be disbursed to individual members in the groups so that each member will receive K500 each as start-up capital to start their businesses.

She explains that after the participants receive their soft loans, they will than undergo 16 weeks of intensive business start-up program on how to start their business and on how to manage their income with close supervision from SMEC.

She says this is a revolving fund concept where the funds will be recouped from the first group and will be used again to fund the next groups in NCD and eventually it will be rolled out to other provinces as well.

She adds that the focus of the concept is to maximize the opportunity gaps in Business Start Ups by providing the soft loan. There was never an opportunity provided in the past trainings except through bank arrangements but those funds parked in the banks were not accessible to SMEs to start up their businesses. SMEC anticipates that this new approach will pave way forward for the promotion and development of businesses to thrive in a sustainable MSME sector.

Meanwhile, participants acknowledged SMEC for rolling out this new concept under the SIYB training programme.