28 MSE bizmen ready for DTI mentors

ANOTHER batch of local entrepreneurs will undergo a mentoring program which can help them become successful in their business ventures.

The third batch of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Kapatid Mentor Me mentees, comprising 28 Cebu-based micro and small entrepreneurs, went through their first set of modules on Tuesday.

“For this batch, we have different speakers. Also, we introduced a module on going digital. Nowadays, digitalization is very important in business,” said Virgilio Espeleta Jr., lead mentor and coordinator for KMM Visayas, during the event launch at Marco Polo Plaza Cebu.

The KMM is 12-week mentorship program for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) which the DTI and the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship (PCE)-Go Negosyo introduced nationwide last year.

In Cebu, the DTI and PCE have partnered with the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), where Espeleta is vice president for business development.

Last year, 26 MSEs from Cebu successfully completed the mentorship program in December after the initiative was launched in October. In June this year, 31 entrepreneurs completed the program’s second run.

Half of this batch’s mentees come from the food sector, while others are from services and more traditional businesses such as manufacturing.

Espeleta said they now have 40 mentors from the CCCI and more from the Manila-based PCE to help local MSMEs become successful.

This batch is due to complete their 12-week course by October 3, almost one year since the first batch was launched.

As early as now, Espeleta said they are already looking at launching a fourth batch sometime in the first quarter of 2018.

On the part of DTI, DTI Cebu Director Maria Elena Arbon said they would continue to roll out the program as long as they would have the budget.

Also launched on Monday was the Aral Negosyo, Angat Kapatid Countryside Negosyo (Anak) program, a derivative of the KMM aimed at developing the capacities of MSMEs outside Cebu’s metropolitan center.

Arbon said the DTI aims to continue the momentum it has started by reaching out and tapping into enterprises in far-flung areas that have less opportunities for growth.

Anak is a grassroots MSME mentoring program that brings capacity-building programs directly to the 11 Negosyo Centers across the province through seminars that would help businesses succeed.

Jose Ma. “Joey” Concepcion, presidential consultant for entrepreneurship, said the KMM is an offshoot of what they at the PCE have been doing in the last 11 years.

In a speech at the event launch, Concepcion said this highlights the power of mentorship, a key element in helping those who want to be entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs who want to be successful.

MSMEs make up 99.6 percent of the country’s total number of businesses and are responsible for 60 percent of employment generated in the whole country.