Investment promotion at the Bottom of the Pyramid

A provincial government in South Africa finds that their existing job and entrepreneurship promotional campaigns are not having the distributed impact that they require.

Approach: Promotion and implementation of large numbers of micro-enterprises for minimum cost, sustainably and in an easily repeatable format;

Required:

• Create 1,000 new businesses in six months to be capitalised with £ 80 ($ 100) each;
• Train 250 new consultants to act as mentors to these new businesses;
• Develop an entirely new approach to business support and development that is distributed, robust and cheap.

Solution: Innovative partnership with government allowed creation of new training mechanisms and an integrated mentorship and financing program.