The Centre for Local Business Development celebrated the graduation of 18 women from its third cohort of the AccelerateHer female entrepreneurship programme on Friday.
The four-month intensive training focused on building leadership and business skills. Participants hailed from Regions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 10, representing industries such as tourism, medical services, manufacturing, and hospitality among others.
Keisha Chung, a past participant turned mentor of the AccelerateHer programme, shared her experience during the graduation ceremony.
“I have no regrets, of course during the programme I asked myself every day how am I going to get through this? What am I doing? Why am I doing this? But it paid off.
“It paid off because at the end of the programme I feel like I emerged as a completely different woman,” Chung told the audience at the ceremony.
Chung believes the programme made her stronger, more confident and a better leader for her business. It also helped her to set up a succession plan and strategic five-year plan for her business.
“So where people might not see immediate funding or financial support and all of that there are things that change within your business when you dedicate yourself to a programmes like this,” Chung said.
Human Services Minister, Dr. Vindhya Persaud praised the initiative and expressed hope for future collaboration with the ministry’s Women’s Investment and Innovation Network (WIIN) programme.
“Guyana is on the precipice of many more great things and it is time now not to see the opportunities but to seize them.
“…and I want to congratulate AccelerateHer for investing in women and for taking them to that point where they seize the opportunities, perfectly equipped with all the necessary elements all the necessary skills and more importantly the network and partnership that is so pivotal for the successes that they want to achieve,” Dr. Persaud stated.
Dr Persaud said she would like to see the Greater Guyana Initiative expand to such a magnitude that there are hundreds of programmes that thousands of women who graduated from the ministry’s programmes are also able to benefit from.
The Greater Guyana Initiative is a US$100 million (GY$20 billion) investment by the Stabroek Block Co-venturers – ExxonMobil Guyana, Hess Guyana and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana, aimed at supporting the development of programmes across the country over a 10-year period.
“Your commitment to local content must be a real one and I am seeing the strides but it needs to be way more, if our country’s human resources especially our women are able and capable of increasing the labour force that has to be way more,” Dr. Persaud said.
She also encouraged the graduates to become mentors to the women in the ministry’s programme.
“I don’t want to see 30 people in AccelerateHer, no,” the Minister added while pointing to the magnitude of what this programme is achieving and the opportunities for funding, partnership and mentorship.
This Dr. Persaud believes is extremely critical to the success of any entrepreneur, especially female entrepreneurs.
Meanwhile, Director of the Centre for Local Business Development, Dr. Natasha Gaskin-Peters highlighted a recent IDB study that showed the challenges facing women-owned businesses in Guyana.
“That study would have found that 95 per cent of women owned businesses had fewer than 10 fulltime employees, 82 per cent earned less than US$50,000 per year and only four per cent of that cohort were certified, only four per cent participated in global supply chain,” Dr. Gaskin-Peters said.
The importance of continued capacity-building efforts for women owned businesses was also highlighted at the ceremony.
