TPSF trains 8,000 entrepreneurs since 1998

The Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) through its Business Development Gateway (BDG) Program has trained about 8,000 entrepreneurs in the country since the program started four years ago. TPSF Program Manager Sosthenes Sambua said last week in Dar es Salaam that the major concept under which the program is undertaken aims at capacity building, awareness on entrepreneurship skills and knowledge-based to enable entrepreneurs to develop small and medium enterprises (SMEs). He said that the BDG program trains potential entrepreneurs to take uo leadership roles and manage self-created business enterprises. The program also trains entrepreneurs to be more creative and face various challenges arising from competition. To achieve its goals, TPSF undertakes the training of business club leaders and their members in general, to widen up knowledge to appreciate various business tactics tasking managers on a daily basis. Beneficiaries of such training have become more productive and quality observant for products suitable for local, regional and wider demand. TPSF Acting Executive Director Godfrey Simbeye threw a challenge to the government for delaying appropriate decisions, saying that bureaucracy hinders small scale business development. He appealed to responsible authorities to remove such barriers so as to open up more business opportunities. He however, challenged entrepreneurs in the country to be innovative so as to be able to thrive in the local market and outside. He made the remarks to 54 chairpersons and secretaries of the BDG clubs from various regions gathered for a two day seminar organized by TPSF on entrepreneurship held last week in Dar es Salaam. Most entrepreneurs in the country fail to break through in business for lack of new ideas and innovation. The training together aimed at improving entrepreneurship skills and business management, communication as well as innovation and competitiveness. About Tsh. 15 billion was spent by TPSF to train over 8,000 entrepreneurs since its establishment in 2008, the acting CEO noted, elaborating that the BDG program is a government initiative expiring this year, and focuses to strengthen entrepreneurial culture by creating critical mass of capable entrepreneurs. Another TPSF training program is the Matching Grants Program (MGP) which ran from 2008 to 2011 and consisted of two matching grant schemes, the Tanzania Business Development Scheme (TBDS) and the Technical Innovation Applied Research Scheme (TIAS), both managed under a single management contract housed in TPSF, he elaborated. TPSF was aimed at improving the competitiveness of private firms in export markets and domestic markets as well, providing standard 50 percent cost-sharing grants to private firms procuring outside services and travel, within a properly-formulated business development plan, aimed at improving competitiveness and thus boosting sales, he further noted. The Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) was established on 4th November 1998 as a result of multi-folded efforts by various stakeholders in the private sector. It was established as a company limited by guarantee to promote private sector-led social and economic development.