Owners of micro, small, medium enterprises to boost skills through training |22 February 2018

Some 200 owners of micro, small, medium enterprises (MSMEs) are expected to follow training at the Guy Morel Institute, Ma Joie to enhance and boost their skills and management capacity to develop and grow their businesses.

The series of three-day trainings in different programme areas such as general business planning, the art of selling, financial management in business, innovation in entrepreneurship to name but some is the second to be carried out under a grant from the African Development Bank (AfDB) for capacity-building of MSMEs received in 2014.

The success of the first training in March last year whereby over 500 entrepreneurs benefited from training to boost their capacity, has led to an increase in demand for similar capacity-building thus this second training whereby over 200 entrepreneurs will be trained by the end of March.

An agreement to formalise the training which is the result of a collaboration between the Ministry of Investment, Industry and Entrepreneurship Development (MIIED), the Guy Morel Institute and Senpa was signed yesterday morning at the Institute.

The Dean of the Guy Morel Institute Shella Mohideen, chief executive of Senpa Penny Belmont and the principal secretary for Industry, Entrepreneurship Development and Business Innovation Roger Toussaint signed the agreement in the presence of the Minister for MIIED Wallace Cosgrow, management staff of the institute, Senpa and other partners.

Speaking after the signing Minister Cosgrow noted that through the implementation of the MSME project it was further confirmed by the initial survey of the AfDB that the entrepreneurs and business community of Seychelles require capacity-building in skills and management to help them develop and grow their businesses to full potentials in order to face competitive challenges brought about by globalisation.

“The signing of the MoU commits to train another 200 participants including those coming from Praslin and La Digue,” Minister Cosgrow noted while commending the Guy Morel Institute for its commitment in delivering the training programme.

He further noted that completing the training is a pre-requisite to access other micro-credit schemes and assistance provided by Senpa. 

He expressed the sincere hope that this agreement sets an example for further collaboration with competent institutions to develop evidence-based modules and deliver capacity building for other ministries and government agencies. 

Before that the director for the Entrepreneurship Centre at the Guy Morel Institute, Marie Celine Zialor, gave an overview of the training and its objectives.

Ms Zialor pointed out that demand for such capacity-building training was overwhelming and those who enrolled wanted to stay on after the three days to continue enhancing their skills further.

“This shows that many people want to enhance their skills and boost their capacity,” Ms Zialor stressed.

For her part Ms Mohideen expressed gratitude to all partners and stakeholders who have worked together with the institute on the project.

She stressed on the need for a change in culture when it comes to entrepreneurship and innovation.

“For so long we have been telling students to study hard and come back to look for employment. We have not been telling them to study hard and be creative and create a business for themselves, create employment for themselves and others. We believe there is a need for a change in such a culture now and we are very happy that government is supporting us and with the support of the AfDB, funds are being made available to build capacity,” Ms Mohideen said.