MONTEGO BAY, St James — Student entrepreneurs in Hanover who were part of the pilot project of the Social Development Commission’s (SDC) Hanover and Infiniti Cooperative Credit Union Youth Entrepreneur Programme, performed so well, with their businesses thriving, that the stakeholders behind the initiative are looking to roll out an islandwide project.

“Hanover is just the beginning. We’re congratulating Team Hanover for really leading this pilot. And because of the success in Hanover we have engaged in discussions with Infiniti and we agree that a programme of this magnitude, with the tremendous success we’ve seen here, is worth expanding into other parishes,” said Social Development Commission (SDC) Executive Director Omar Frith in an interview with the Jamaica Observer following the pilot programme’s closing and awards ceremony held at S Hotel in St James last Thursday.

“We’re advancing our discussions to begin roll-out but, obviously, we have to look at each parish’s various unique realities and then determine how best we can tailor-fit this to the other locations,” added Frith.

Frith said before the end of the current financial year, SDC will be advanced in implementing another such initiative.

The executive director said the programme forms part of a bigger national drive to build the local economy, and is a part of SDC’s Local Economic Development Support Programme.

SDC Parish Manager Tova Trench-Anderson, in her overview, noted that over the past three months, 30 student entrepreneurs representing four high schools in Hanover — Rusea’s High School, Green Island High School, Merlene Ottey High School, and Knockalva Technical High School — operated 23 businesses while competing for a grand prize valued at $90,000.

“At the start of the programme a total of $230,000 in seed capital was invested to help these businesses get off the ground. That investment has yielded remarkable results. Today, we are proud to announce that our young entrepreneurs have generated more than $850,000 in revenue, demonstrating that when young people are equipped with the right support, mentorship, and opportunity, they can achieve extraordinary things,” stated Trench-Anderson.

The parish manager said the “programme tells a story of resilience, creativity, and hard work.

“It is a story of students who balanced academics while building businesses; teachers who willingly mentored and encouraged them; of judges who carefully evaluated their progress; of local entrepreneurs and presenters who equipped them with practical knowledge in entrepreneurship, marketing, financial management and business development; and of partners who believed enough in our youth to invest in their dreams,” she said.

At the end of the competition — which was aimed at stimulating local economic development at the school level by equipping students with entrepreneurial skills, financial literacy, business planning, social media marketing, and hands-on business experience — the most profitable entrepreneur award went to Davia Porter of Rusea’s High, who operated D’s Charms.

Third place and $30,000 went to Nazarih Turner of Merlene Ottey High who operated the snack wheel, while $60,000 went to second-place winner Kendra Dinham who operated the Crumb & Get It business.

Rusea’s High School’s Racene Small and Kathaleya Dixon, the operators of RK Sweet Treats, came out as the winners and were awarded $90,000. The duo , who offered delivery services, served a variety of decorated cakes in a cup.

In reflecting on the programme, Racene indicated that managing schoolwork and a business were among the struggles she and her business partner had to endure.

“To solve that problem we had to try to balance our business with our schoolwork as well as prioritise the business needs and prioritising the school needs. But, aside from school, our main problem was deciding the pricing for our product, which are cakes in a cup,” said Racene.

She noted that while the journey was very long, it was filled with knowledge, accountability, and financial competence.

For her part, Kathaleya revealed that “it wasn’t difficult, because most of our customers were our friends, but some days it was hard to get customers”.

Conroy Ward, regional sales manager of Infiniti Co-operative Credit Union — which currently operates 12 branches across Jamaica — explained that his institution’s contribution to the programme was more than financial.

“We also gave capacity building, we gave of our time, and we gave of our experience… This is something that we deem to be very important, and we will continue to [contribute to] this programme as we move to the next stage,” stated Ward, who confirmed Infiniti’s continued support for the programme.

“Looking back, I think we have surpassed our expectations. We dealt with a number of students, and at the end of it — just listening to the students, how they would have shared what they had learned over the 12 weeks in our interaction with them — we would have seen where they would have put in their commitment and passion… From that, we also got a glimpse of the future of what Jamaica looks like with the new set of entrepreneurs that are coming. And at Infiniti we are glad we are a part of that and we can help to set that foundation for them going forward,” argued the regional sales manager.

Member of Parliament (MP) for Hanover Eastern and Opposition spokesperson on tourism Andrea Purkiss, who invested $60,000 into the overall prize pool, has expressed great pride in the outcomes.

“I wish I could have invested more. When I was invited by SDC to the first gathering, [the launch at Grand Palladium Hotel in Hanover in April], I sat in the room and just watched the students…on the screen, listened to their concepts and… got the understanding that they worked on their own a lot — the names of the businesses, they came up with their own concepts — and that was pretty big for me,” said Purkiss.

She also said the programme is encouraging, “because what it does [is] it helps our students to understand that even if they excel at academics… it’s still good to invest and to have something for yourself, something that… you really don’t have to depend on another company or somebody’s company, but you’re able to do something for yourself and to benefit”.

With plans in motion to take the competition islandwide, Purkiss encouraged her parliamentary colleagues across the different parishes to “get on board and assist our students”.

Other officials in attendance included the MP for Hanover Western, Heatha Miller Bennett and MP for St James Central Heroy Clarke.