AFRICAN SUSTAINABILITY MASTERCLASS

Profile of the African SME Training Seminars

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the biggest employment creators in African communities. In cases where the formal labour market does not offer enough jobs, out of necessity, people often turn to entrepreneurial activities for economic survival. Opportunity entrepreneurs are a major source of job creation and growth while necessity entrepreneurs secure people’s livelihoods. However, SMEs have high failure rates and face challenges in providing quality jobs. Support needs to be provided to entrepreneurs operating both out of opportunity as well as out of necessity. One of the key elements in improving the survival rate and the performance of these enterprises is improving the management competencies of their owners / managers and staff.

This calls for creating access to affordable management training and other business development services for these enterprises. Making small business management training available at a massive scale has been a mainstay of ASFIN over the years. Through a wide range of tools for business management training and business services development, ASFIN and its partners have helped build national SME support structures in several countries across the continent. The SME Business Management Seminars are organised by ASFIN, the African Training Institute, the African Consulting Group and other partners in selected African countries.

Goal of the Seminar

• To train and develop capacities of small business owners and managers to improve upon their knowledge in basic business management skills.

Training Objectives

• To strengthen managerial and entrepreneurial skills of participants to improve their business management and operations.
• To enable participants, assess their capabilities and motivation in entrepreneurial career to develop business skills.

Expected Outcomes

Expected outcomes of the training include:

• Improved knowledge and skills in business management.
• Participants’ ability to identify viable business opportunities enhanced.
• Participants’ develop ability to assess their own weakness, strength, opportunities, fears and motivation in business initiation and management.

Topics We Cover

The following topics will be treated to help achieve the intended objectives:

• Basic Business Management skills and competencies
• Entrepreneurial skills
• Entrepreneurship capabilities
• Financial literacy and management
• Business purpose and operation
• Systematic business planning
• Profit and Loss Analysis
• Marketing, Customer Service, Quality control and Processing.

Profile of the Trainers and Resources Persons

The SME Training Seminar will be facilitated by resource persons and trainers from the African SME Forum and the African Training Institute. Also, experienced guest speakers will be invited from corporate institutions and government agencies to share their experiences with the participants.