Participants urged to implement business plans

Even though only 25 of them managed to win seed capital vouchers, Managing Director of Nedbank Swaziland Ambrose Dlamini said all the participants were winners and thus should implement their business plans.

"I encourage you to pursue your business plans because for you to reach this stage of the competitions means that you are a winner. There is no failure that can reach this stage of the competition, which is why you must implement those business plans," he said, when addressing the audience during the announcement of this year’s Believe Begin Become business plan competition hosted by TechnoServe.

Dlamini explained that Nedbank supported such a competition because it was the epitome of the bank’s objective to promote Swazi entrepreneurs in order to fuel economic development and create employment.

"We want Swazis, especially young people to develop an entrepreneurial spirit and establish their own businesses so that they can have a better future. Our society is engulfed by a myriad of problems such as poverty, unemployment, economic stagnation and HIV and AIDS. Entrepreneurship comes as a solution to such problems. It is a phenomenon that we need to promote at all costs as private institutions," said Dlamini.

He elaborated that it was incumbent upon the bank to see entrepreneurs succeed in their businesses, growing to form big corporate institutions.

He made mention of the fact that in the past, the bank’s Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) department used to be under the corporate department but two years ago, they changed their organisational structure.

"As I speak, Nedbank SME is a fully fledged department that functions independently. This re-organisation has worked well because we are now able to focus on the needs of the SMEs. Our SME bankers are now in a better position to provide sound financial advice for their businesses and prescribe the appropriate products for them," explained Dlamini.