Small businesses to benefit from virtual entrepreneurship expo
Small and micro operators are set to receive advice and guidance on best practices to grow and strengthen their businesses this year through a virtual entrepreneurship expo to take place later this month.
The ‘Virtual Entrepreneurship Expo 2021’, dubbed a ‘one-of-a-kind event’, aims to promote sustainable growth and development among local entrepreneurs. The free live streamed virtual event hosted by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), through the European Union (EU) funded Poverty Reduction Programme (PRP) IV and in partnership with the FLOW foundation, will take place from January 19-21.
“As a long-standing strategic partner in Jamaica’s development, we are proud to be on board for this expo which is well aligned with our foundation’s focus of driving digital education and supporting micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMES). The expo is being staged at a critical time and is an excellent opportunity for our entrepreneurs as well as others interested in starting their own businesses to grasp fundamental and strategic concepts that will help them on their journey. We are happy to support the JSIF with this venture, and also to provide the technology that will take this transformational event to entrepreneurs in
Jamaica and the wider region,” said Stephen Price, chairman of the Flow Foundation.
Under the theme ‘Perseverance During these Challenging Times’, the expo will feature a combination of presentations and interactive panel discussions with some of the country’s foremost business leaders— who will share insights on the challenges of navigating business in the COVID-19 environment as well as make recommendations on how to pivot amid the difficulties. By way of a 3D Virtual Tour, viewers will also have an opportunity to explore the service offerings of social enterprises and community business organisations.
Recognising the importance of community-based social intervention programmes as a key driver of youth development and overall well-being, this joint JSIF/EU programme seeks to provide an opportunity to highlight 30 targeted community-based enterprises and social enterprises on their various programmes and products. The expo will also provide training and digital engagement opportunities aimed at enhancing, expanding and improving these entities in their business efforts.
“Jamaica’s innovative spirit is alive and full of potential among our youth. In order to see more positive outcomes for our country overall, more must be done to enhance the natural talents our young people already possess, especially those in underserved communities. Instilling an appreciation for responsible business practices is an important step,” said Celia Dillon, PRP project manager at JSIF.
“As [the] challenges increase — the need to improve policies and programmes to create an enabling environment for Jamaica’s youth to prosper becomes more urgent. The JSIF has always been keen on building projects that empower and educate. We believe that the Virtual Entrepreneurship Expo is a necessary vehicle to set the focus of our country’s young minds as they take on 2021 and beyond,” she added.
RF Holdings limited, parent company to a group of investment banks in The Bahamas, Barbados, and the cayman islands, has entered into partnership with financial technology company, Bitt to facilitate the acceptance of digital currency transactions across its caribbean network.
The partnership, which focuses on developing a platform based on Bitt’s digital currency infrastructure, will allow for digital currencies, such as ‘Sand Dollar’in The Bahamas, ‘mmoney’ in Barbados, and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank’s ‘Dcash’, to be accepted and accessed across the investment’s bank’s products by a wider network of Caribbean clients. RF, through this latest venture, intends for this platform to not only assist in providing added convenience to clients of the investment bank, but to also create a more efficient business model. The platform will be able to facilitate payments from and between institutions such as banks, individual consumers and merchants.
According to Michael Anderson, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of RF Group, the growing popularity of digital currencies internationally has resulted in an increased need for the same in the Caribbean.
“At RF we believe in embracing new technologies and trends to serve our clients in the most effective ways. We look forward to creating, in collaboration with Bitt, a convenient solution for our clients who previously couldn’t access our investment vehicles to easily do business with us,” he said.
A release statement yesterday said that as digital currencies become more available, the benefits of cross-border digital currency exchange for the Caribbean region will expand far beyond the conveniences it will provide for RF clients.
“The longer-term goal of the platform is to facilitate general online payments — making mobile and online goods and services more accessible and more affordable in the Caribbean region by allowing individuals and businesses to efficiently transact directly with each other. The immediate target for the platform is facilitating transactions based on available digital currencies in The Bahamas and Barbados. The platform’s services will [however] be eventually offered to the rest of the Caribbean,” the release stated.
Bitt provides its Digital Currency Management Systems (DCMS) to central banks, commercial banks and credit unions, merchants and consumers, to equip every ecosystem participant with the digital currency components necessary to participate in fully digital transactions for the POST-COVID-19 economy.
Bitt’s CEO Brian Popelka, commenting on this latest development, said that since its 2016 launch of the synthetic digital currency in Barbados, the company has been working towards the creation of an intra-regional, cross-border settlement solution to unlock trade, investment, and remittance flows within the Caribbean.
“We are thrilled to be working with RF Holdings to leverage Bitt’s DCMS in creating a solution that will boost RF’S product offering and usher in a transformational way of conducting business within the region,” he said.