Social Entrepreneurship
Our development initiatives focus on poverty alleviation and economic empowerment. We offer start-up capital and training for small businesses, equipping young entrepreneurs with the skills and resources they need to succeed. Through our social entrepreneurship platform, MONGO-na-BENUE, we catalyze sustainable growth and create opportunities for rural youths to contribute economically to their communities. This program aims to foster self-reliance and long-term prosperity.
By integrating these programs, RAYD strives to create a holistic support system that addresses the diverse needs of rural youth, enabling them to achieve their full potential and contribute positively to their communities.
In 2017, RAYD started giving small grants of just about $100 each to unemployed rural youths to start an economic activity for themselves.
In order to make this program sustainable, RAYD has formed a social enterprise platform (Moungo-Bénoué Social Enterprise) which shall incorporate a microfinance, a business development unit, and a consultancy bureau.
Above 80% of rural youths in Cameroon do not have access to formal financing – credit, savings, and mortgages – that will let them start up a reasonable business venture of their own. They cannot afford the securities/collaterals required by the formal banking sector (including microfinance institutions) to provide them with the capital they need to start and run their own businesses.
Despite the fact that some of these youths have very profitable business ideas, the formal banking sector focuses almost solely on landed properties (with land certificates issued by the State) as collateral for loans, not intellectual properties.
How the microcredit scheme work
In the short-term, RAYD shall focus on using the platform to train youths on building good business plans, as well as collaborate with partner microfinance institutions to provide the security that is needed for the loans to be provided for start-up capital for the business ventures . While partners provide loans, RAYD works with the beneficiaries to identify sources of supply and aggregate the orders from the beneficiaries to place one big other to suppliers – this shall ensure economics of scale and efficiency.
In the long-term, RAYD intends to create and operate a microfinance mostly suited to the business needs of youths.
While loans are being provided, the business development unit of the platform shall give the young entrepreneurs a hands-on training on how to grow their businesses, provide them training on how to better manage their loans, help them better manage the fiscal obligations related to their businesses.
With a viable platform that guarantees long-term support, youths can actually follow careers paths that lead to more sustainable ventures. The current focus on short-term ventures, with unsustainable returns can be avoided.