Western Union has announced its Small Business For Better initiative, which aims to create 10,000 new jobs over three years by supporting 1,000 micro, small and medium enterprises with new funding, technical assistance and business training, products and services, and opportunities for enhanced visibility and business networking. This commitment is designed to build on Western Union’s business solutions that provide micro, small amd medium sized businesses with the tools they need to do business in new, emerging markets around the globe. The commitment will include:
- Essential business training: Western Union will work with a variety of NGOs to strengthen management skills in five areas (Human Resources, marketing, finance, operations and personal productivity).
- New Capital: This commitment will make $1.5M in capital available in the first year alone. It takes a high-leverage approach, connecting entrepreneurs with potential sources of capital, and offering a one-for-one matching grant.
- New Networks: This commitment will create a new continuum of resources for development, from micro to small to medium enterprises, by bringing together Western Union Agents, NGOs, and government and private development agencies, and industry associations.
- Diaspora engagement: Collectively, we will engage in extensive outreach to diaspora communities, enlisting business leaders, local and region-specific chambers of commerce, Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) and the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), as well as immigrant associations and business students. This overall approach is designed to foster valuable new networks and connect them with key resources.
Progress:
The second African Diaspora Marketplace (ADM), a business plan competition supporting U.S.-based African diaspora entrepreneurs with ideas for start-up and established businesses in sub-Saharan Africa, is accepting proposals and will connect entrepreneurs with capital and offer a one for one matching grant.
Western Union has also brought on new partners to increase the value for small businesses. The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), an African-funded foundation that promotes the competitiveness of the African private sector, is joining the ADM II partnership. The Tony Elumelu Foundation will participate through the hosting of an annual event in Lagos, Nigeria starting in late 2012 where ADM grantees will have the chance to pitch to a group of select impact investors for second round equity and debt financing.
Seventeen U.S.-based diaspora entrepreneurs were awarded grants and technical assistance valued at up to a $70,000 to fund innovative business plans in seven countries in sub-Saharan and North Africa as part of the second African Diaspora Marketplace. The entrepreneurs that have won grants to start businesses this year include:
- a Kenyan agribusiness implementing sustainable "zero-waste" practices through the commercial production of High Efficiency Organic Fertilizer
- the first legal technology provider in Tunisia
- an alternative power-generator utilizing agricultural waste in Liberia; and
- an online medical information delivery system in Nigeria
Western Union has held multiple free webinars for small businesses and NGOs to help them manage currency risk and global money movement more efficiently and economically.
In February, the company committed to A Billion + Change, a national campaign to mobilize pro bono and skills-based service by 2013 to address core issues our communities face across the country and around the world, to provide essential business training.
Western Union is renewing partnerships with Ashoka’s Executive in Residence program, which places Western Union executives with leading social entrepreneurs and with MicroMentor, a free online service that connects small business owners with business mentors.