GOVERNMENT will increase the budgetary allocation for the inaugural Graduate Business Start-Up Grant Scheme in the next fiscal year to empower final year tertiary students and graduates to venture into entrepreneurship.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Biman Prasad confirmed this to The Fiji Times in an interview as he urged all TSLS graduates contemplating of starting a business to explore this program.
On Monday, the Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation (FCEF) – the facilitator of the scheme – graduated 21 pioneer recipients of the pilot program and disbursed $5000 each to kick-start their businesses.
Those graduates will venture into catering, daycare, poultry, retail, and automotive repairs, inland tours, among others.
The Graduate Business Start-up Grant Scheme is implemented as a multifaceted business incubator model that is aimed at enhancing TSLS graduates’ innovative, scalable and bankable business ideas, and help them to start their businesses.
Mr Prasad said the scheme was designed to de-risk the incubatee and provide knowledge, skills, resources, and experience to start and sustain their business.
He said in the short to medium term, it would allow them to access further blended financing with donors and banks, including new financing facilities such as equity crowdfunding, which was passed through an Act of Parliament earlier this year.
“What we’re trying to do is to encourage our young people coming out of universities to not just think about going and working somewhere but also to think about starting a business,” Mr Prasad told this newspaper.
“In many countries, the young graduate start-up programs have led to significant development, new ideas, new products being manufactured and new ways of doing business.
“So this is the first time in this country that we have provided additional initiative, a new initiative, the business graduate start-up program and I am very pleased that we’ve been able to get 21 people to start this program.
“Ensuring that these incubatees not only start their business but also scale up is very critical.
“It is in the scaling up and growth of businesses – from micro to small, and medium to large – where sustained and real economic development happens.”
The Government had approved this inaugural scheme with a budgetary allocation of $300,000 in the 2024–2025 National Budget.
“As I said today, we are going to increase the budget allocation for the graduate business start-up program and my message to all the graduates out there, if you are thinking of doing a business, if you’re thinking of building a foundation for business in the future, please look at our graduate business start-up program and make use of it,” Mr Prasad said.
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Biman Prasad speaking to this newspaper after the Graduate Business Start-Up Grant Scheme Training Program after their graduation earlier this week. Picture: JOSEFA SIGAVOLAVOLA.
