To help young entrepreneurs thrive, the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) Guyana on Tuesday kicked off its Young Entrepreneur’s Programme aimed at providing the necessary skills and tools needed to develop their respective businesses.
To achieve this mandate, AmCham created a Young Entrepreneur arm for young business owners, who are eager to learn from successful and established business executives in Guyana and internationally, on how to succeed in the business environment.
AmCham outlined that mentorship by top corporate executives would be in the areas of banking, supply chain management, risk diversification, growth, and other issues that would be raised by the participants in the programme.
Applications will be accepted in batches of 25.
In terms of criteria for participation, businesses must be owned (in the majority) by someone between the age of 20 to 35; businesses must be formally registered; if one year or older, the business must have tax returns and business TIN and NIS registration.
Application forms can be found on AmCham’s website www.Amcham.gy.
Iman Cummings, Director at AmCham, delivering remarks at the launching, explained that with the emergence of innovations and technological advancements that have disrupted the status quo, young entrepreneurs understand this and are ready to take over.
But for them to excel, a conducive environment needs to be provided for them to meet their full potential.
“We need to guide them so that their innovative ideas can flourish and usher in a larger private sector that can match ideas and reach like their counterparts in the region and around the world,” she stated.
Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson Jr., delivering the main remarks, emphasised the importance of youth involvement in Guyana’s local content arena. He pointed out too that the Youth Ministry is pushing an “entrepreneurship culture” for young people.
“Many times, successful people don’t just want to give back in terms of cash.
“They want to be able to give back to their time, and they want to know what is the best vehicle to go about doing it,” he stated.
Soon, Minister Ramson added, the ministry will launch its equivalent to “Shark Tank”. Currently, he said the ministry has a programme where young people can receive funding and mentorship for their business ideas.
Also at the launching was the US Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah Ann Lynch, who lauded the initiative, citing it is her firm belief that entrepreneurship can be cultivated at a young age.
She also pledged the Embassy’s support to the programme.
Further, the US Ambassador urged the participants to “not be afraid to take smart risks” as it engraves lifelong lessons that can help to push one to success.
Meanwhile, Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Oneidge Walrond, threw the government’s support behind the project.
She outlined that too that her ministry has embarked on their own efforts to push entrepreneurship with the launch of the youth entrepreneurship survey; this is aimed at helping the ministry gain more insight into the entrepreneurial desires of young Guyanese.
“We hope to use this initiative to engender and inspire greater interest fire young people in business,” Minister Waldron said.
