MORE than 20 villagers from within four communities of North Guadalcanal have successfully completed a week long business training, on Friday the 17th of this month.
The training was funded by the Ministry of Commerce and Industries, through the Guadalcanal provincial office and was facilitated by Solomon Islands Small Business Enterprises Centre (SISBEC), a service provider of the Ministry itself.
This was done through an invitation from the Mangakiki, Komabulu, Kotsai, and Sarivaba (MKKS) Association, with the purpose of training its members on how to start a business.
Through the course of the one week training, SISBEC trainer Joel Hounima conducted a series of theory and practical sessions based on the topics, record keeping, costing and pricing, marketing and sales, and also personal financial management.
Speaking at the close of the training, Chief Industrial Development officer, Guadalcanal provincial government Jacob Gala thanked the west Guadalcanal communities for inviting the ministry to deliver the much needed training for their members and also SISBEC for accepting the ministry’s request.
“I would like to thank SISBEC as one of our service providers for accepting our request to deliver the Ministry’s objectives and that is to train micro to small medium enterprises (MSME) to become self reliance and sustain in the long run and to create employment in the rural areas.
“Now, you have learnt how to start your own business, record keeping, costing and pricing, sales and marketing, and personal financial management.
“I encourage you to use where appropriate to start your own business and improve your lives because this training is purposely to encourage you to start your own business,” Mr Gala said.
He added that the ministry through its MSME policies will continue to assist the participants in terms of future trainings, advisory, business planning and will continue to support the association when needed.
A representative for the participants also thanked the ministry rep and the facilitator for rendering their time during the course of the training despite their busy schedules and also for sharing their knowledge and experiences on how to run a small business, adding they are so fortunate to be part of the training.
“We are so fortunate or privileged to attend this training.
“For most of us, this business training is the first ever for us to attend and I believe that what we learn from this training has helped us a lot by giving us new ideas and information, increase our knowledge and skills on how to run a small business, which will help us to improve our living.
“We hope that in the future, we will have more training from your team,” the rep said.
Meanwhile, the participants are overwhelmed when receiving a copy of their certificates for successfully completing the training.
By RONALD TOITO’ONA
