ARTICLE - CLINTON BUSH HAITI FUND GRANT

CLINTON BUSH HAITI FUND ANNOUNCES $2M GRANT TO CULTIVATE SMALL AND GROWING BUSINESSES
(South Florida Caribbean News) -

WASHINGTON - The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund today announced a $2 million grant to TechnoServe to implement the Haitian Business Accelerator (HBA), a project that aims to transform small and growing businesses into investment-ready, bankable companies positioned to develop Haiti’s formal economy and promote jobs.

TechnoServe, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with expertise in building businesses and industries throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America, will implement the project. HBA will work with Haitian companies over three years, identifying businesses that are worthy of investment and transforming them into businesses that are ready for investment. TechnoServe will solicit and review more than 1,000 business plans, select 750 entrepreneurs most suited for success, and train this elite group with global best practices in business development.

Additionally, TechnoServe will provide six months of advanced business mentoring for 60 HBA program entrepreneurs. It will use $300,000 of the $2 million grant to provide immediate access to financing for top performing businesses. HBA will seek out both new and existing businesses that could benefit from the program, and will build up the capacity of existing business development services providers. TechnoServe has already begun identifying a list of Haitian initiatives to provide a pipeline of small and growing businesses that would benefit from HBA services.

As Haiti works to rebuild, HBA addresses the need for business capacity development in its economy. “With the exception of a few large companies, Haiti’s formal business sector is very small, and businesses of all sizes have suffered significantly since last year’s earthquake,” explains Clinton Bush Haiti Fund’s Vice President for Programs and Investments Paul Altidor. “Small and growing enterprises hold the potential for transforming Haiti’s economy, but these enterprises need business acumen and access to financial services in order to attract the private investment they need to develop. The Business Accelerator will help them do just that.”

The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund is also working with TechnoServe’s Haiti Hope Project which aims to increase the income of 25,000 small farming families in the mango sector. In addition, TechnoServe recently completed the Mon Entreprise, Mon Avenir (My Business, My Future) business plan competition, guiding over 80 promising Haitian entrepreneurs through robust business plan development.