Economic prosperity through entrepreneurship
─ Conference empowers Lindeners
DPI, Guyana, Monday, July 30, 2018
A recent One-Stop-Shop business conference looked to empower Lindeners of African descent on how to become successful entrepreneurs in a collective approach so as to benefit all in the community.
The conference was organized by the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly of Guyana (IDPAD-G), in collaboration with the African Business Roundtable (ABR) and the Nile Valley Economic Community (Nivalecom). It provided timely information through several agencies, including the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC), the Small Business Bureau (SBB), Citizen’s Bank, the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and the Commercial and Deeds Registries.
Several youths took the opportunity to fill out application forms for the accessing of loans and grants, that were made available by the (IDPAD-G). At the opening ceremony, President of the African Business Roundtable, Eric Phillips stressed the need for Linden officials and stakeholders to adopt a 10-10-10 economic plan to create up to 5,000 jobs. He shared 14 business initiatives including the development of a tourism sector. He also spoke of turning the town into a green zone in keeping with the country’s push for the green economy.
Phillips said that these strides can only be made communally and urged Lindeners to work together to realize this goal as was done by their African fore parents.
He shunned the myths of Afro-Guyanese not having the capacity to own and manage successful businesses, something that their fore parents had done effectively. “We come from a great entrepreneurial heritage, that our ancestors were the first entrepreneurs, the first business people. We should not feel that business is not for us… We have to come together in a spirited community because our ancestors thought communally, so it’s not just about 100 chickens but 10,000, not about 100 acres but 10,000,” he reasoned.
Similar sentiments were shared by African Movement Linden branch Chairman, Gary Croal, who also urged Lindeners to embrace the idea of communal entrepreneurship as this will not only benefit one man but the entire economy of Linden. Businesses, he said, should be established as interdependent agencies since a one-man army can never reap success.
“It helps in the African way to maintain all the businesses all the time because businesses depend on each other; they are all inter-related by one business. That is how our fore parents grew, they interconnect every business along the villages, so if one business has a problem, all would know.” He added: “We should shun individuality because it shows selfishness. If your business fails, then automatically my business will fail, that is how we should look at it.”
He also urged business-related and financial lending institutions to establish offices in the mining town as did the Small Business Bureau (SBB) to assist the grassroots residents with the technical and clerical aspect of their business ventures.
The third outreach is slated for August 8 at Corentyne at the Rose Hall Youth and Sports Club on August 8.
Story and Images: Vanessa Braithwaite