DTI eyeing to mentor more entrepreneurs

The Department of Trade and Industry is looking to mentor more Cebuano entrepreneurs next year under the Kapatid Mentor Me (KMM) program.

In a press conference yesterday, DTI regional director Asteria Caberte said the program will have a bigger budget next year as they eye to have more entrepreneurs in Cebu as well as other provinces in Region 7 enrolled in the program.

Yesterday, at least 26 Cebuano entrepreneurs comprising the third batch of KMM mentees graduated at City Sports Club.

These entrepreneurs are into different sectors such as processed food, trading and services.

About 50 percent of the mentees are engaged in the food sector including food production and processing. Others are into the services industry.

The KMM program has so far produced 83 graduates in Cebu and another 82 from Siquijor, Bohol and Negros Oriental, totaling to 165.

The DTI had spent some P3 million for the mentoring of these 165 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across the region.

DTI-Cebu director Ma. Elena Arbon said that Cebu’s dynamic economy spells opportunities to have more entrepreneurs out there join the program.

She said there is definitely a need to produce more entrepreneurs who are vital in the generation of more jobs.

Some of the KMM graduates have already joined the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), thus mainstreaming their identity as businesses and expanding their network with other bigger companies.

CHALLENGES

Virgilio Espeleta, the program's lead mentor and who is vice president for business development of CCCI, cited sustainability as one of the challenges of the program.

This means that it is important that the mentees are able to apply what they have learned from the mentoring sessions in actual business operations.

Another is the need for more established mentors to share their knowledge and help these small entrepreneurs grow and learn from them.

"We need more mentors who are life-minded and have the passion," Espeleta said.

The fourth batch of KMM in Cebu is expected to be launched early next year.

KMM is a 12-module mentoring session for MSEs to help scale up their business through weekly coaching and mentoring by business owners and practitioners on the different areas of entrepreneurship.

The goal of the program is to produce confident entrepreneurs with the right mindset and business knowhow that will enable them to sustain and scale up their business.

The entrepreneurial mentoring program is led by DTI, Go Negosyo and the CCCI.

The program aims to help micro and small entrepreneurs scale up their businesses through the coaching and mentoring of business owners, practitioners, and experts on different areas of entrepreneurship.

The mentoring program also aims to make the idea of entrepreneurship less intimidating to people and provide them with the confidence to surmount the obstacles. The idea is to pass on business knowledge to starting entrepreneurs and provide them with concrete guidance on specific entrepreneurial and business ideas.

Mentorship is powerful and is a key element in helping those who want to become entrepreneurs and even entrepreneurs who want to become more successful.

MSMEs account for 99.6 percent of the total enterprises in the Philippines with Central Visayas ranking third in having the most MSMEs in the country.

Republic Act No. 10644 also known as the “Go Negosyo Act” which seeks to strengthen MSMEs to create more job opportunities in the country.

Its basic policy is to foster national development, promote inclusive growth, and reduce poverty by encouraging the establishment of MSMEs that facilitate local job creation, production, and trade in the country.