Mentorship and financial literacy . . . Government’s two pronged approach to growing micro entreprises

Government will be placing emphasis on educating Barbadians on how to be financially literate and how the formation of community clusters in business can benefit the entrepreneur.

Minister of Small Business, Entrepreneurship and Commerce, Dwight Sutherland, disclosed this on Monday night while attending his Ministry’s We Gatherin’ Straight Talk initiative, held at the Lester Vaughan School, Cane Garden, St. Thomas.

“Government is focusing on two things, educating our people in terms of financial literacy through a financial literacy bureau, which is a policy initiative that we will be building out this year, and something called community clusters.

“This (the panel) is part of the Community Cluster programme, whereby our businesses are here to tell you how they would have succeeded in having their businesses remain as viable entities,” he said, as he gave the rationale for the panel that comprised four entrepreneurs – Owner of Coral by Hand, Omar Ward; Owner of Earthworks Pottery, David Speiler; Physiotherapist, Dr Phyllis Burnett; and Manager of Shine Automotive, Dario Greenidge.

Minister Sutherland added that it was important to engage communities and create community entrepreneurship to build out the micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) sector.

Stating that agencies and government could not do it alone, he stressed the need to hear about the journeys of the four entities, their challenges, experiences and success stories. And he noted that the Government’s mandate was to create the policy environment through which these businesses could flourish.

“They have the challenges they went through, the obstacles they would have faced, the falls and indeed, they bounced back and they now run successful businesses. So, we want to create the whole cluster approach whereby [you can] think about the cluster as a ring and you have the small businesses and the entrepreneurs who are now engaging in entrepreneurship holding hands in St. Thomas.

“And, as we build out entrepreneurship in Barbados, you form your ring in St. Thomas, but within that ring, you have the likes of Earthworks Pottery, artists, the physiotherapist. Even though they are not related businesses, they will hold your hand and guide you through the process, as we as a Government set the policy for what we call the Financial Literacy Bureau,” the Small Business Minister explained.

He noted, too, that sustainability in business is important. While acknowledging that this, along with access to capital, posed challenges to MSMEs, Mr Sutherland said: “The sustainability is fundamental for me…  I can give you all the access to capital, but if you are not well endowed with financial literacy, [you may fail].”  (BGIS)