WE NOTE with interest that Churches Co-operative Credit Union, in preparation for its 35th anniversary celebrations in 2006, has just launched an Entrepreneurs' Award scheme targeting university students with above average academic performance. The CCCU is to make up to $250,000 available to award-winning university students to serve as seed capital for starting a small business enterprise.
The data however, actually point in the opposite direction indicating that the greatest entrepreneurial drive tends to come from people who are not the star performers in traditional, non-entrepreneurial academic systems. Some major business leaders have in fact been school drop-outs!
According to general manager, Basil Naar the awards scheme is an opportunity for the credit union to "refocus its thinking and go back to its roots." The credit union movement, with deep religious roots and going back to mid-19th century Germany, allows individuals to pool their financial resources for low-cost loans to members for "prudent and productive purposes". As for so many other credit facilities, consumer loans have come to dominate credit union lending. Basil Naar wants to lead Churches Co-operative Credit Union back to a greater emphasis on supporting people with entrepreneurial ideas. As such mentorship and incubation support are integral parts of the CCCU Entrepreneurs' Award scheme.
We are not certain to what extent the universities stimulate entrepreneurial energy and activity. Business studies tend more to be preparation for steady jobs in established enterprises a desire which is particularly strongly entrenched in Jamaican students and their parents. But to the extent that the universities are centres of research and innovation, they should be producing many business ideas for entrepreneurial uptake.
At the other end of the scale, the tens of thousands of unemployed youth who have done badly in the education system and have dropped out at various stages need far more support than is now available for launching and sustaining micro-enterprises.
The business of micro-financing for economic and social development with strong moral underpinnings and without excessive collateral demands is something for which credit unions are particularly well suited from their history and philosophy.
There are many people who no doubt have workable business ideas but who are short of seed capital. The financing arrangement through the CCCU Entrepreneurial Awards scheme may be a comparatively small step; but it is in the right direction.
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