PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte’s 100-day in office was named as “Kuya Rody” to micro, small and medium entrepreneurs (MSMEs) during the Mentor Me Program launch of Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship, Inc. – Go Negosyo and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in Marco Polo Hotel, Davao City, Friday, October 7.
Mentor Me is a component of the “Kapatid Angat Lahat” program along with the Adopt a Shared Service Facilities and Inclusive Business components.
Some 700 participants convened Friday, which is 40 percent higher than the target of 500.
President Duterte was invited to grace a town hall discussion on MSME Development plans of his administration.
“It is innate in every Filipino to help their 'kapatid.' For many entrepreneurs, they have mentors who will guide and support them in their business. So in line with President Duterte’s agenda of helping micro and small entrepreneurs, we asked him to be 'Kuya Rody' or the Big Brother to the whole entrepreneurship community,” Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion said.
Concepcion said that “mentoring” is a tool for success for every entrepreneur.
During the town hall session, which also had a simulcast (live stream) with the Cebu launch at the Waterfront Hotel, Kuya Rody invited one micro entrepreneur on stage to get to know her business and introduced her to the community of medium and large entrepreneurs who can help her grow and sustain her businesses further.
This is the mission of Kapatid to link the micro and small entrepreneurs (small brothers) to the big brothers in the industry.
The launching in Friday has three forums which is re-thinking agriculture business, mindset and values of successful agripreneurs, marketing and market trends and how to competitively brand your product and business and inspirational forum stories of creative ideas turned to successful businesses.
Davao City has been identified as one of the eight pilot areas in the country for the initial implementation of the program.
Other pilot areas/cities of the program are Baguio, Iloilo, Cebu, Tacloban, Zamboanga, Cagayan de Oro and General Santos.
Rachel Remitio, Chief Trade and Industry Development Specialist of DTI-Davao said that the program is seen to capacitate and develop further the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and become more competitive and sustainable in a bid to reduce unemployment, poverty and achieve inclusive growth.
“This will be initially implemented in the pilot areas but by next year (2017) we target to roll it nationwide in all the areas where Negosyo Centers are established,” Remitio said.
A total of 308 Negosyo Centers are in the country, 14 of which are launched in Davao Region.
For next year, DTI is also eyeing to establish a total of 21 centers and 49 centers by 2018.
The Mentor ME component is a one-on-one weekly mentoring sessions by business owners and practitioners to micro entrepreneurs on different functional areas of entrepreneurship.
Businesses with capitalization at P3 million and below belong to this segment.
A total of 20 micro entrepreneurs are eyed to be the recipients of this mentoring session per Negosyo Center.
In Davao City, two centers were already launched at Magsaysay Park Complex and in Toril.
The Mentor ME component will be implemented for 11 weeks starting October 12 to December 21.
Topics to be tackled include setting the entrepreneurship mindset, marketing and market trends, operations management, human resource management, supply and value chain and financial management, among others.
“We are confident that after the 11 sessions, the recipients will enable to upgrade themselves from micro to being small or even bigger,” Remitio said, citing small enterprises has capitalization of P3 million to P30 million while medium enterprises has P100 million and below capitalization.
Remitio also said that after the mentoring sessions, the entrepreneurs will be tasked to come up with re-entry plan or feasibility study for their businesses.
In order to qualify as beneficiary of the Mentor ME component, one must have a business name registration or a business permit, operating at least one year, resident of Davao City, at least 18 years old and must be committed to allocate time for the 11 weeks mentoring sessions period.
Remitio added that they have also identified local business experts who will mentor the micro entrepreneurs.
Most of the mentors are from the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc.
Furthermore, DTl’s Small Business Corporation, a program on small enterprise development financing, awarded five micro entrepreneurs with loans totaling to more than P2,000,000.00.
Aside from the DTI, Department of Agriculture and many large corporations have pledged their support to Kapatid, Angat Lahat.