Sustainable Enterprise
Sustainable Enterprise Development Programme
ENDIP strongly believe that enterprises are sustainable solutions to poverty reduction in developing countries. As a center for enterprise development, ENDIP is committed to facilitating the establishment of sustainable enterprises through capacity development, training, provision of micro-finance, functional vocational/technical training programmes, business development services, mentorship, business incubation and growth capital financing. Since inception, ENDIP has remained committed to mobilizing and promoting enterprise development as a veritable tool for poverty reduction in urban and rural settings. ENDIP is focusing on capacity development of youths, women and men in the core areas of entrepreneurial leadership training, enterprise development, vocational skills development aimed at promoting and harnessing micro-enterprise schemes to help foster the creative energies of individuals for the purpose of economic empowerment and rural infrastructure development; entrepreneurship & enterprise management education programme for undergraduates of tertiary institutions in Nigeria. We also strongly believe ENDIP is a catalyst for young people in harnessing and fostering their creative energies for the betterment of our society with the overall objective of harnessing the entrepreneurial potentials of young people for local economic development.
Project Background
The majority of Niger Delta people are entrepreneurial by nature. This means the satisfaction of an innate desire to fulfil a felt need towards the attainment of sustainable livelihood. A lot of people are concerned about eking out a living; the satisfaction of basic physiological needs. This desire is reflected in the diverse economic activities embarked upon in almost all facet of society. While some people have an innate, ‘native intelligence’ on how to transform their entrepreneurial initiatives into meaningful, tangible enterprise ventures, the majority are often left with the choice of wandering against all odds: How do I transform my entrepreneurial idea from wishful thinking to practical reality? What does it take to set up an enterprise? What trainings do I need? Where can I get relevant information? How much do I need to set up my enterprise? Who will give me the funds? Can I have access to loan information and alternative funding sources? Am I eligible for loans, and what are the lending criteria? Can I get a loan? From whom? Government, banks or private sector funds (multilateral and bilateral)? What about tax issues? Are there legal restrictions on the kind of business I will be embarking on? Are there incentives for me in this kind of business? Will I make it in this new enterprise initiative? Will I be able to sell my product(s) and services? Is there a market for it? Will I profit from it? These are myriads of questions begging for answers.
How about already established businesses? How do I grow my business? What growth opportunities are there? How can I take advantage of them? Is there a centre where entrepreneurs can access specialist business advisory services? A centre that would provide opportunity for one to one meeting with a professional business adviser; have access to training and business development services in the area of marketing, business development, tendering and procurement, business skills; access to finance and financial management; environmental improvement, networking and partnership development.
Social research has shown that there are no existing centres in the Niger Delta region offering such holistic, integrated and professional business advisory services in Bayelsa State at the moment. Neither banks nor Government have funded such initiatives. With nobody providing such professional guidance and mentorship for these budding and emerging entrepreneurs; lofty business ideas becomes wishful thinking and high mortality of businesses resulting in anti-social behaviours and violence is unleashed on innocent citizens who are often at the receiving end of societal frustrations. This has resulted in the social, economic and financial exclusion of the majority of entrepreneurial poor people. Against this backdrop, we are proposing the establishment of a Small Business Centres in the capital cities of the 9 states of the Niger Delta region.
Overarching Objective
Transformation of MSMEs from the informal to the formal sector of the Nigerian economy.
Programme Objective:
Facilitate, encourage and stimulate the growth of community-based, pro-poor enterprises from the start to viable commercial levels through the provision of professional business development services and sustainable utilization of local resources of the local economy aimed at poverty reduction
Project Purpose: This project has three purposes:
(a) Strengthen and build the capacity of community-based entrepreneurs’ access to business development services, access to finance, access to market and business linkage;
(b) Capacity development of new entrepreneurs to identify and develop locality relevant local enterprises aimed at empowering indigenous entrepreneurs to form alliances for improving their competitiveness and strengthen their relationship with entrepreneurs, banks and financial institutions, businesses, NGOs and government;
(c) To facilitate the acquisition of skills for life aimed at human capacity development and local economic development through the empowerment of youth and women (who are at the heart of successful enterprise development and poverty reduction programmes).