February 9, 2007 BY:

NOMILE HLATSHWAYO

 

Two of last year's six Believe Begin Become (BBB) Business Plan Competition (BPC) winners have started utilising their seed capital. These are Richard Bishop and Sipho Kunene who are in tourism and service sectors respectively. The competition, run by TechnoServe, saw Phila Msibi winning the grand prize of E150 000 and five others winning category prizes worth E75 000 each as seed capital, which they won during the final awards ceremony held in December last year. All those who made it to the top 20, including the six winners, were awarded business development services or aftercare vouchers worth E30 000 each. The vouchers are meant for consultancy services such as accounting, marketing, as well as legal advisory, to mention a few. BPC Manager Nelo Sibandze disclosed that one of the finalists utilised the money to launch his company and the other to expand their businesses. In addition to that, she said some of the top 20 finalists have started to use their business development services vouchers whilst those in the top six are still finalising some logistics to kick-start their businesses. She stated that TechnoServe is monitoring the usage of the funds. """"""""""""""""There are strict control measures regarding the disbursements of the seed capital and aftercare awards to ensure that the money goes directly to the supplier or service provider,"""""""""""""""" she said. Sibandze also disclosed that TechnoServe has met with the six winners to discuss and advise them how to best utilise their seed capital. As part of the post-competition, TechnoServe will also visit the 20 finalists every six months for the next three years to monitor their progress. Further, the organisation will be keeping track of the top 60 participants who completed the core training process. """"""""""""""""A contact point for us to keep in touch with the top 60 is an Alumni group that was set up two weeks ago. TechnoServe will only play a supportive role, otherwise the Alumni will be led by the participants themselves,"""""""""""""""" she explained. The participants met two Saturdays ago and defined goals and objectives of the Alumni. An interim committee was chosen and tasked with the drafting of a constitution, which they have completed. This will be presented during the general meeting before the end of the month.