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Jobs
Creation
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Fighting Poverty Through Jobs Creation
We know that the primary reason for the great amount of poverty in Africa
is that there are very few jobs to go around. So ICAfrica's
key mandate is to identify and assist those entrepreneurs that have the most
potential to grow their businesses and create the maximum number of jobs
possible. We offer them business coaching, micro-loans at zero
interest, for those living below the poverty line, and we offer other
business growth services. As the businesses grow larger, we try to minimize
the risk to entrepreneurs by assisting them with venture capital
programs.
Our experience has shown that
for less than $100 in micro-loan, a woman in a remote village can create a
job that feeds her and her family. $500 will allow a micro business to start
in a city and create one fulltime job for the entrepreneur. We also know
that for every $500 in new investment into an existing company, one fulltime
job usually results. We know that generally, the larger the businesses the
more jobs they can create. Operators of larger small businesses stop
taking loans at some point in their business growth due to higher risk
factors. To solve this problem, we introduce venture capitals and outside
investors to incentivise their participation in the business's continued
growth.
Over the next 5 years, (2011 -
2015),
ICAfrica will attempt to assist
200,000 enterprises in our present core countries of Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya
and Uganda, and create 3,000,000 direct and indirect new jobs, effectively moving 10 million people above
the poverty line. With more funding, we would do more.
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