The Centre for Entrepreneurship

Despite political instability in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon and the outbreak of the Corona Virus which have affected jobs and enterprises as a whole, most businesses fail because of lack of business knowledge , bad business practice and shortage of capital. These are the reasons most entrepreneurs cannot grow and make available good jobs for their communities talk less of breaking even in business.The solution we are proposing is to create a Center for entrepreneurship which will provide digital solutions for mentor ship, training and incubation of small and medium size enterprises. This centre will provide sound business knowledge and quality skills both for workers and businessmen. We will also formalise the extension of our services in the creation of a small and medium size enterprise lending/ grant unit

There are thousands of entrepreneurs and business owners seeking financial and technical support so as to to aid them realise their potentials. Recently the Corona virus pandemic has caused total of 81% of the global workforce of 3.3 billion people have had their workplace fully or partly closed. The outbreak of the Anglophone crises in Cameroon has led to more that 50% setbacks in businesses in Cameroon. There has been a general downturn in business though at first, most businesses were failing due to lack of quality knowledge and lack of access to capital. An employee who generally is running a good business well incubated will not fear any job loss. Though the conflict has seen more than 500.000 people displaced from their homes as refugees, some killed. Some groups are already calling for a ceasefire following the Covid outbreack. All these have caused general fear and 79% of the Cameroonian population is already loosing hope. People are not sure of job security and most business owners are finding it very hard to duplicate jobs.Many businesses are collapsing as most financial institutions fear loan granting.

We will create a Centre for Entrepreneurship through which we will pool a great number of innovative entrepreneurs from all walks of life. They will have to submit business plans to us through an Entrepreneurs' nest which we will hold quarterly. The Center will use digital training material to train entrepreneurs, mentor them and coach them to make sure they can create or retain existing businesses which can create jobs. Staff will also benefit from the same training. The Center will recommend 20 sound entrepreneurs  for us to provide them with incubation capital for their businesses. We will also create a special department with well trained personnel to cater for the needs of Small and Medium size enterprises. We will use digital learning materials for training likewise audio visual media to do publicity. The will be an interconnected data management system to assist in monitoring all processes

We will target the population of the North West and South West region of Cameroon which has been badly hit by the Anglophone crises. We must pay special attention to those who have lost their businesses as a result of the crises and those in dying need of more capital to expand their existing businesses. We will also pay attention to female entrepreneurs since they are proven to be better off in management than men. We have about 12700 members registered with our Credit Union so we understand their needs very well. We will concentrate specifically in the rural areas where our branches are located. We have our internal training schemes for staff and some members once yearly but a centre will be of great help as it will be open to the public. Entrepreneurs will have the required expertise to manage their businesses through our mentor ship and coaching and access to capital will be guaranteed through our small and medium size enterprise department. Jobs will be created and our Entrepreneurs' nest will create a strong network of entrepreneurs, coaches and innovators.

Most persons lack quality jobs either because they don not have the skills to handle particular tasks. Businesses also find it difficult to be come sustainable due to lack of knowledge,bad practices,low skills ans shortage or lack of capital and political and social instability. For these reasons, most entrepreneurs fins it difficult to grow and provide good jobs for others. Following the challenge, we intend to support a selected number of entrepreneurs both businesspersons and employees in untapped communities , provide them with capital, mentor and coach them and follow them up to make them role models for others.  

Since i started working with a financial institution, i have never come across any financial institution in Cameroon that operates an Entrepreneurship Center to train entrepreneurs. Most institutions are only interested in lending and depends mostly on staff expertise to provide counselling and coaching to clients. This has been a failed venture as most of these loans go delinquent as some of the staff are not well trained and some do not have adequate time to mentor these small businessholders and entrepreneurs. A chain up between the center and the institution and its department for Small and Medium enterprises will go a long way to educate and train both staff and business persons and will automatically create more jobs and ensure job security through the provision of access to capital.

All our training at the Center will be done using a projector which will be acquired for the Center. We will also acquire micro microphones for facilitators and a quality sound system . Added to the projector will be digital blackboards. Some training manuals will be printed and distributed during learning while some will be placed online so learners can download. Learners will be allowed to take notes manually or with laptops, ipads or android phones. All actors both learners and facilitators will have opportunities to hold group conferences online in case physical meetings are not possible.

The projector is still not very common especially in training. Likewise wireless micro microphones and digital black boards. This is either because they are still very expensive and more so are not known by a majority of persons especially in rural areas. These are very common learning material already in use in the Western world but learning in Africa as a whole can be seen being done with the manual blackboard and chalk. You can fine projectors in very few organisations during training. Most pitching during boot-camps are done using projectors. We already have an existing banking software. All we need will be to upgrade it to suit the needs of the project and to use it in monitoring.

           We will concentrate on three main activities. To create a Centre for Entrepreneurship that will provide training, mentoring, Coaching and other business development services for employees and entrepreneurs. Secondly, we will organise at least 4 series of Entrepreneur Nests and also identify other potential Small and medium enterprises that can have incubation grants and access to finance.Thirdly, we will create a Small and Medium size enterprise lending unit to harness the portfolio and divert it to at least 15% within the time frame of the project. All participants will have an online platform for interactive purposes. We are expecting inputs from external and internal facilitators and coaches.Lots of sourcing will be done, publicity public education and media broadcasts, development of pricing, recruitment and lots of technical assistance will be needed.

         The outputs we expect will be the creation of jobs, establishment of networks , lasting relationships and partnerships, staff and business persons will acquire new knowledge and some small and medium enterprises will receive incubation grants. The loan portfolio will equally be harnessed to suit not only members but the entire public.

Each nest organised will be open for at least 50 participants. In one year we The nest will be in quarters. The first year will have about 200 persons who will benefit from training and mentor ship and at least 20 within the first year to benefit from the Small and Medium size enterprise incubation grant. Withing 5 years we are expecting to have reached out to at least 1.000 entrepreneurs and at least 100 persons benefiting  from Small and Medium size enterprise incubation grant. Each beneficiary will be expected to employ at least 2 persons and equally train them so we expect at least 200 well paid jobs within 5 years. Likewise the center will also recruit facilitators.

We intend to pool as many members and participants as possible within 5 years and make sure we create remarkable impacts on their lives. We will pay special attention on gender equality and the poor masses mostly affected by crises. We intend to raise at least 1,250,000 USD which will enable the credit union establish more permanent Small and Medium size enterprise services to the public. The credit union expects to attract more sponsors, advertisers, development agencies who will assist to cover some unforeseen expenses that may arise during the entrepreneurs' nest. We are also expecting quality in experience and consultancy among employees as the Center will be continuously useful. we will equally keep generating income within the union to cover some operating expenses related to the project.

The main barriers to achieving these goals are the Corona virus and the current anglophone crises. These are making mobilisation of persons and funds extremely difficult. To raise huge sums of funds to assist the needy has become very difficult. Most persons are afraid and there is a lot of uncertainty looming in the air. Unlike before, income generation has dropped, savings dropped and there is a lot of migration. Though the government is already on a reconstruction plan for the North west and South West regions,it will take a very long time for activities to materialise and normalise in the two English speaking regions.

The union has a very strong base for reserves to handle shocks in times of crises meanwhile the Center will take all necessary dispensations to ensure its security. Meanwhile the Union has a very strong and talented set of staff to mobilise financial resources, we will equally source from other donors and equally raise income through the disposal of assets that are not deemed necessary to keep. While also embarking on aggressive loan recovery, we are also disposing col laterals for cash of members who have become less trustworthy. In this time of crises we also try as much as possible to limit giving out bad loans as much as possible and offering very attractive interest rates.

The team will comprise of 3 permanent team members. 3 persons will work permanently at the Center while we will source 2 contractors to add to the team especially during the Entrepreneurs' nest. 

The team is made up of 3 professionals with two having 8 years each in micro finance. We have worked as lending officers and presently managers with sound academic qualifications in accountancy and banking. We are still working as managers of Credit union branches and we are very conversant with the daily operations of Small and Medium size enterprises.The other team member is a business consultant with more than 7 years of experience in training of students for the job market in business and business consultancy. He is currently an accountant with RIA Somalia. We are all self motivated to bring a changing solution that will help boost our business sector likewise open up opportunities for coaching, training and mentor ship in a bid to assist government create more job openings.

We are partners with most commercial banks in Cameroon because they provide cooperate financial services to us. We also partner with common initiative groups like Ghape with whom we share financial and consultancy services. We are currently working with PADMIR which is a world bank project as we assist them as a liaison between their project and Common initiative groups of the Credit Union. We are also in partnership with the Solution law firm which provided retainer ship and legal advise to the Union.

We provide specialised financial services to our members on a daily basis. We have a staff strength of about 37 for all our branches nationwide. Our business model is unique as we have both back office and front office operations which are uniform for all our branches. We generate income from sales of stationery, loan interest, donations, sales of assets. bank interest and this income is used to run the offices daily and the balances are accumulated and paid to members as interest at the end of each year. We provide savings accounts, inter branch services, money transfer, financial counselling, loans accounts, deposit accounts, sick persons outreach, contract financing, small business loans, prepaid visa card services.

We are seeking a technical assistant grant to assist us in the startup of the entrepreneurs's Center, run the nest and be able to finance some entrepreneurs through the nest. We have been operating for several years and our main source of income is from loan interest and sales of stationeries which covers the running cost of our offices and pays the interest on savings as dividends to our members. We are hoping to secure sustained donations and grants to help us extend our outreach to as more persons as possible within our community and create more remarkable impacts in the lives of the public in terms of job security and creation. Hence all avenues to raise income to achieve this project from within the credit union and from partners is welcome

We are applying to solve as a means to seek technical assistance in Starting up an Entrepreneurship Centre to train both employees and entrepreneurs and to assist raise grants to at least 20 entrepreneurs who have been affected by the Anglophone crises and have encountered genuine reasons for failed businesses. We will greatly appreciate expertise assistance in coaching, mentor ship, networking and counselling as far as this challenge is concerned.

What prompted us to come up with this solution was that most persons especially in Africa as a whole are not versed with recent changes in technological trends. Most persons are so mad about white collar jobs and government jobs and this has helped to kill most initiatives as most people find it difficult to know and discover their true potentials. No matter what we do in life the end point is to generate income and be self sustainable which always comes with barriers. We depend on daily routine tasks which is very dangerous.

Firstly we will like to partner with the solve team for partnership and mentor ship. Any other donors with focus on technology , community development and poverty alleviation and food security aims will also be loved to  with like the United Nations, Microsoft and any other Foundation with the above mentioned objectives.

Following the outbreak of the Anglophone crises in the two English speaking regions of Cameroon, more than 500.000 persons have become refugees because of this problem and some internally displaced. Businesses have been forced to close and some burned down with huge valuables. This will be an opportunity to include refugees in our training program and incubation process to enable them get back on their feet. We will not only pay preference to the incubation grant for members only who have been affected but we will also select some members from the public with innovative ideas and business plans to enable them benefit from the incubation grant.

During our Entrepreneurs' Nest, we will source business entrepreneurs with specific technologies which benefit women especially in food transformation. they will also benefit from this grant during the incubation process.

The Centre for Entrepreneurship will be opened by the Credit Union to train all Entrepreneurs from all walks of life. We are expecting that each Entrepreneur who benefits from the incubation grant should be able to employ and secure jobs for at least two persons. The Centre in itself will have newly recruited personnel while the for all the Entrepreneur Nests that the union will organise, we will have people recruited as Panel Judges and we must source external service providers.

The Entrepreneur Center will be open to adults of all categories and not children. We intend to promote Entrepreneurs within certain mature ages who can recruit personnel and control them easily to achieve efficiency. We will be using digital learning material which is still very strange to many adults in Africa as a whole. We intend to promote employees who have worked for considerable years with experience because they stand the risk of lay-offs in times of crises.