SMEs represent 90% of businesses and provide 7 out of 10 employments but 70% to 80% of them fail, hence putting pressure on unemployment.
As a two-way solution, the Funema Venture Building Institute (FVBI) is designed to train youths to become re-founders and venture builders. These re-founders will go ahead to nurture and venture-build SMEs into sustainable and scalable businesses, thereby fulfilling the Institute’s goal of reducing the failure rate of small businesses while also creating employment for youths in developing nations.
In August 2022, we concluded the first phase of the first cohort of the institute. We had over 100 applications and 8 candidates shortlisted to move to the next stage. These candidates went through the required training necessary for deal sourcing; they engaged in a capstone project and came up with an average of 5 SMEs from various sectors like small scale deliveries, renewable energy, manufacturing, beauty & health, construction, etc.
The FVBI shortlisted candidates are entry level workers, majorly from Nigeria and South Africa (two of Africa's biggest countries). These shortlisted candidates will be proceeding to garner more knowledge on topics such as First Level Analysis, Planning and Documentation, and Financial Engineering in order to help them carry extensive due diligence on the SMEs sourced.
The second cohort of the Funema Venture Building Institute will be out next year (2023).
Follow us on all our social pages to stay updated and get notified.
