Maputo, Mozambique, December 7, 2010
— IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, announced today it has signed two-year agreements with 18 public and private organizations and three agribusiness programs to expand access to its Business Edge training program in Mozambique, supporting small business growth in the country.
The agreements will allow clients to access Business Edge resources, program design and implementation skills. Thanks to these partnerships, about 1,000 people in Mozambique, including suppliers, staff, distributors and clients, will receive training in business and management skills over the next year.
Business Edge is IFC’s comprehensive range of practical and flexible management training solutions, specially designed to improve the performance of small and medium firms and middle management of corporate firms.
IFC has signed new agreements as follows:
· Five financial institutions: Standard Bank, Banco Tchuma, Sociedade de Investimentos, SA (GAPI), Banco Comercial e de Investimentos (BCI) and Barclays Bank Moçambique
· Three business membership organizations: Confederação das Associações Económicas (CTA), Associação Moçambicana dos Operadores de Microfinanças (AMOMIF) and Mozambique Business Network (MBN)
· Two public institutions: Instituto para Promoção das Pequenas e Médias Empresas (IPEME) and Fundo de Investimento e Património do Abastecimento de Água (FIPAG)
· Five corporations: Coca Cola Sabco, Petróleos de Moçambique (Petromoc), Águas de Moçambique (AdeM), Higest, Lda, Kawena, Lda
· Three universities: Instituto Superior de Ciência e Tecnologia de Moçambique (ISCTEM Business School), Universidade Técnica de Mocambique (UDM) and Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM).
IFC and its SME Management Solutions Program will also support three agribusiness programs in the country: Apoio Às Iniciativas Privadas no Sector Agrário – ADIPSA (Danida Program) to increase smallholders´ income from marketing agricultural production; Abt Associates (USAID-AgriFUTURO Program) to improve value chains; and Tecnhoserve, a nongovernmental organization, to support poultry, forestry and grind milling businesses.
Babatunde Onitiri, IFC Country Manager for Mozambique, said, “The expansion of Business Edge solutions will support the growth of smaller businesses in Mozambique. Supporting smaller businesses is a major focus of IFC’s work in Africa and a stronger SME business sector in Mozambique will help create employment and generate growth in the country.”
IFC will work closely with its seven implementing partners in Mozambique to help organize educational events, identify training needs, customize content, managing the training activities, ensure its quality, and to evaluate the impact of the training.
The seven partners are: Escola Superior de Negócios e Empreendedorismo de Chibuto (ESNEC/UEM), Sociedade de Investimentos (GAPI), Formoprojectos, EUROSIS - Consultoria e Formação em Gestão, PROCESS - Consultoria e Formação, International Capital Corporation (ICC) and BKSC,
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest development institution focused on the private sector in developing countries. We create opportunity for people to escape poverty and improve their lives—by providing financing to help businesses employ more people and provide essential services, mobilizing capital from others, and delivering advisory and risk-management services to ensure sustainable development. In a time of global economic uncertainty, our new investments climbed to a record $18 billion in fiscal 2010. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
About Business Edge
Business Edge is IFC’s comprehensive range of practical and flexible management training solutions, specially designed to improve the performance of small and medium firms and middle management of corporate firms.
To date, Business Edge has been rolled out in more than 30 countries and more than 120,000 entrepreneurs were trained through a network of 350 certified trainers. Flexible in its application, Business Edge is reducing the skills gap of very different populations, often underserved or not served at all. Twenty-four percent of all BE trainees are women, IDA and conflict affected countries represent 59 percent of the regions currently served by BE and 26 percent of all BE trainees come from conflict-affected countries like Iraq and Yemen.
About SME Toolkit
The SME Toolkit was launched in 2002 by IFC. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the SME Toolkit network covers Benin, Kenya, Rwanda, Madagascar, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, and Zambia. The sites enable users to search and browse content, list their businesses, and create Web pages in a searchable business directory. Users are also able to network by participating in multilingual community forums on key business management topics. The SME Toolkit content can also be distributed on CD-ROM and mobile phones. In 2006, IFC partnered with IBM (
www.ibm.com
) to strengthen and expand the Toolkit’s capabilities.
Globally, to-date the SME Toolkit is available through 31 Web sites and in over 17 languages throughout the developing world. In many of these markets there are no other comparable on-line support resources for small businesses in the local language. The Toolkit receives over 4.5 million unique visitors per year. For more information, visit
www.smetoolkit.org.
