Intafact Beverages unveils initiative to assist budding entrepreneurs

Intafact Beverages Limited, a subsidiary of SABMiller and producer of Hero lager has launched its Hero’s Foundation ‘KickStart’ initiative which is aimed at assisting budding entrepreneurs in the South East to start up and expand their businesses through requisite training, mentorship and financial grants.

The KickStart programme is SAB Miller’s social corporate investment initiative (CSI) on poverty alleviation and sustainable enterprise development in areas where it operates by assisting young people between the ages of 18 and 35 years build enduring entrepreneurial skills.

General Manager, Intafact Beverages Limited Lukas Van-Deventer stated in a statement that the programme will help reduce youth unemployment and also improve the lives of youth in the South-East region by helping to create a culture of entrepreneurship.

“The Kick-start programme is aimed at creating and developing a culture of entrepreneurship among our young people by promoting business skills, managerial awareness and material support through training, mentorship and provision of grants as start-up capital or expansion seed.”

“The major objective of this programme is to ensure that the teeming youth in the South East with bright business ideas to turn these ideas into reality and this will in turn reduce undergraduate unemployment by engaging them meaningfully through an entrepreneurship programme that will encourage them to bring their dreams to life” he further stated in the statement.

He said that with this initiative, SABMiller is investing in the future of the region where it operates by helping to build a prosperous young society adding that interested applicants will be able to get their forms from March 15, 2016 from the website which is currently under construction or at the Intafact Beverage office in Ontisha and other designated points in and around the South-East region.

The Kickstart programme is the first of its kind in the South East and the second in Nigeria after Ilesha. It has also been implemented in South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Tanzania. The programme will have eligible applicants present their original business ideas for a chance to get funding and business support for their start-ups or small businesses.

DANIEL OBI