New Entrepreneur:Start Your Life As an Entrepreneur
21 Jan, 2019  
Fig: New Entrepreneur:Start Your Life As an Entrepreneur

What started in 2013 as a small initiative to support the entrepreneurial abilities of the second generation of Grameen Bank borrowers, now has given rise to a massive family of 38253 "Nobin Udyoktas” (NU) or “New entrepreneurs”. “Nobin Udyoktas” are the children of Grameen Bank borrowers who are entering or contributing to the labor force as talented young entrepreneurs.

Unemployment is a crippling problem for society, leading to societal decay through lower productivity and frustration. The aim of the Nobin initiative has been to turn unemployed young people into entrepreneurs by providing financing opportunities & incubation facilities for aspiring entrepreneurs. The guiding slogan of the initiative has been ‘We are not job seekers, we are job givers’.

The first step of the Nobin Initiative involves creating a social business venture capital fund and then screening to identify young people who are ready to launch their own business. Four Grameen companies created social business venture capital funds and designed a procedure to select potential entrepreneurs.

 Entrepreneur selection criteria:

1.     The Nobin should be a child of Grameen Bank's Borrower

2.     Must be from low income family and willing to be self-employed

3.     The entrepreneur himself/herself can't be loanee of GB

4.     The age limit for male entrepreneurs is 18-35 years and age the range is slightly relaxed for female entrepreneurs

5.     Willing to run business individually or jointly

As of 2018, 439 field staff have been engaged in dentifying entrepreneurs and providing business funds for them.The Nobin programme covers 58 of the 64 districts of Bangladesh. There is an average of 559 Nobin per district of the country. Total investment of USD 42.03 million has been made to 38000 Nobin entrepreneurs. By the end of 2019 it will reach USD 71 million to 54000 Nobin entrepreneurs.

Following the screening process, promising talents are assisted by the Grameen companies to develop their formal business plans and be presentation ready for assessment by critiques. These sessions take the form of the Design Labs. At the Design Labs, which continue to be held till today, entrepreneurs present their business plans in the form of Power Point presentations showcasing its vital information and business viability. The business plans are then critiqued and assessed for feasibility and success and taken up for mentorship and investment opportunities by the Grameen company. Through the mentorship programmes, the Grameen companies assist the NUs enhance their business scopes through design development, training on book keeping & business strategies, extending working capital and introducing new channels and markets.

Before entering into the agreement, the entrepreneur must present in details the risks factors, availability of raw material, marketing strategy/policies, financial projections and also has to justify why he/she qualifies for receiving investment for the relevant project. Till the entrepreneur is able to take full ownership of the business project, close monitoring and supervision is undertaken by the Grameen Company. They do this monitoring financial data: expected monthly sales, revenues, cash flows etc. sent by the entrepreneurs through SMS on a daily basis. In doing so, the Grameen companies are able to ensure that the Nobin entrepreneur can buy back all the shares owned by Grameen companies. The cumulative amount of payment received has been USD 23.75 million (2018).

The average investment amount for each NU project has been USD 1199. It is important to note that in the case of the Nobin Programme, the investing Grameen organization works on a social business model i.e. it will just take back only its investment amount from the business within the predetermined time frame as noted in the agreement with the entrepreneur and not take any amount beyond that. For this purpose the Grameen companies have created social business funds. For the Nobin on the otherhand, it will be traditional profit taking business for her/him and s/he will make profit out of the business as usual.

For 2019, the Grameen companies involved in the Nobin programme have set higher goals. They hope to add additional 25000 more Nobin projects to push the total number to over 54000 and covering almost all of the districts of Bangladesh. The ultimate aim is to put unemployment and poverty into museums and create a better world as envisioned by Professor Muhammad Yunus.

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