RRU Business Competition Aimed At Helping Tanzanian Villagers
Feb 08, 2010
(News Release) VICTORIA – Members of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) at Royal Roads University last week launched the first annual Micro Finance Business Ideas Competition in which winning ideas will be eligible to win four cash rewards of $2,500 each, totaling $10,000 in prize money.
“We are collaborating with a non-profit here in Victoria and several small villages in the area of Moshi, Tanzania,” says Caleb Del Begio, student, entrepreneur and director of micro-lending for SIFE Royal Roads. “The goal is to provide some real economic development opportunities both at home and abroad.”
The Eric C. Douglass Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies at Royal Roads University in partnership with the Nelson Family Micro-business Fund –created to support the establishment of promising small business concepts in the villages in the region of Moshi, Tanzania – are supporting this work. In April a group of students armed with business ideas generated from this competition will head to Tanzania to conduct feasibility assessments of the businesses being proposed. The fund will then provide the micro-loans and students will help administer the business plans.
“Micro lending is a way to empower individuals by giving them the resources they need to build a profitable business,” says faculty advisor Geoff Archer, an associate professor of entrepreneurial management at Royal Roads University. “This year, thanks to the support of the Nelson Family fund, we are asking students to act locally, but think globally.”
The goal of the competition is to identify, promote and reward innovative business ideas by providing small business loans to people who would otherwise have difficulty receiving such a small loan from a bank.
The competition is open to the public and provides an opportunity for business-minded people to make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate.
The competition runs from Feb. 1 to March 1. Entries are three to five page descriptions of promising small business concepts that could be implemented within a very tight budget - $500 in Tanzania or $5000 in Victoria. All submissions will be judged on concept, market relevancy, social impact, financial viability and sustainability by a team of students, academics, microfinance professionals and local leaders who best understand what it will take to succeed in these communities.
For more information and submission requirements please visit www.MFBIC.org.
Royal Roads University was established by the Province of British Columbia in 1995 as a special purpose university charged with advancing professionals in the workplace. It is the only public university in Canada exclusively designed for this demographic and, as such, all its programs and research are focused on applied, real-world relevance and experience.