MOROGORO ENTREPRENEURS EMPOWERED WITH MANAGEMENT SKILLS TO PROFESSIONALIZE THEIR BUSINESS OPERATIONS

Mr. Fred Laiser speaks about CEED Tanzania.

The Center for Entrepreneurship and Executive Development (CEED), held a business management and investment training in Morogoro region with the focus to empower local entrepreneurs in the region to work together in addressing business challenges and opportunities as they arise. Some local banks in the region, CRDB, NMB, NBC, Akiba Bank and Bank of Africa participated in the event and provided valuable guidelines on the challenges they experience in working with entrepreneurs to ensure they access capital with minimal hassles. In addition, the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA) in Morogoro was also present to share some of their learnings with the local business community on building competitiveness in the business community. In a presentation from CEED’s director, Mr Atiba Amalile, entrepreneurs were reminded that “it can not be business as usual, if Tanzania is to become a middle-income country in the next few years”.

Mr Baptist Mnyalape, a tax consultant and chapter lead for CEED in Dodoma, encouraged the Morogoro entrepreneurs to ensure that they “comply to regulations that directly affect your businesses. Failure to do so can be very expensive in both time and money.” Additionally, Mr Dennis Kayanda, from CRDB bank also reiterated the importance of businesses to comply with taxation and land use policy. He shared examples of the dangers in seeking loans from commercial banks to invest in businesses that may not be operating in the appropriate land-use zone and how such actions can negatively impact the businesses when land-use policy is enforced.

The event in Morogoro also focused on the life cycle of a business and what entrepreneurs should be aware of as businesses grow and become more complex. Sharing his experience as a CEED member, Mr Victor Mfinanga, Managing Director of Shamabani Milk in Morogoro said “I regularly attend CEED meetings in Dar es Salaam to keep up to date with business best practices, new networks and even technologies that I can learn from and adopt in my businesses here in Morogoro.”

CEED is a global organization with its head office based in Washington DC. CEED Tanzania was officially launched in 2017. Since then, CEED has supported SMEs with management and professionalization trainings, networking, finance and market linkages. CEED is a program of the Small Enterprise Assistance Funds (SEAF), a global impact investment organization with more than 25 years of experience. To improve the investment readiness and competitiveness of businesses, CEED offers trainings through peer-to-peer learning opportunities where entrepreneurs share their experiences, help each other overcome obstacles, and develop trust in one another through the CEED network while having access to tailored, practical, growth-oriented support at a local and global level.

In Tanzania, CEED is supported by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Argidius Foundation. As part of its contribution to the growth of a vibrant SME sector in Tanzania, CEED will utilize its experience in investments, technical assistance and training to help entrepreneurs address their challenges to growth; incorporate business management systems; understand and identify appropriate financing; manage and sustain new growth and investments to their businesses.

For more information please contact Fred Laiser at flaiser@ceed-tanzania.orgor 0767 250 255