75670 PLUS JUNE 2012 LessonsPlus are extended commentaries on previously Training Entrepreneurs: written SmartLessons that provide additional lessons- More Lessons from Advising Small and Medium learned to the body of knowledge. Enterprises in Mozambique and Angola ABOUT THE AUTHOR This LessonsPlus builds on the Lessons Learned documented by Mário Gomes M�RIO GOMES in Managing Entrepreneurs. is an Operations Officer in IFC’s Sustainable Business Advisory (SBA) Business Line and is based Our advisory work with small and medium Our conclusion was that we must require in Maputo, Mozambique. He has enterprises (SMEs) in Mozambique and some cash contribution from the trainees worked in private sector development (including SMEs) for Angola from 2006 through 2008 was designed to ensure that they were fully committed 16 years. to bolster the weak private sector in the two to the process and paid attention to what countries, each of which had emerged from a we were teaching. Also, we learned that we APPROVING MANAGERS long civil war. One of the three components had to engage in tough negotiations with Colin Shepherd, Regional Business of our effort, called the Entrepreneurship clients to ensure that they understood the Line Leader in Africa; Johane Rajaobelina, Senior Operations Development Initiative, was providing process and that they would be required to Officer, Management Solutions (SMS) professional training to the businesses. contribute financially. IFC hired consultants to offer the training It takes time to organize training. either through business membership DISCLAIMER organizations or financial institutions, or Organizing the training was not easy, because SmartLessons is an awards program to share lessons learned directly. The 2,285 trainees included several the business people were scattered in in development-oriented business associations in Mozambique, hotel different areas of the cities and had varied advisory services and investment staff in Angola, and accountants and schedules. The problem was exacerbated in operations. The findings, businesswomen in both countries. We also Angola because of especially bad traffic in interpretations, and conclusions provided instruction to clients of a Luanda. expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not Mozambique bank in how to use the various necessarily reflect the views of types of trade finance that the bank offered, Our experience showed that between three IFC or its partner organizations, and we offered training for consultants on and six months are required to organize the Executive Directors of The how to work with SMEs. training programs. That includes time to World Bank or the governments they represent. IFC does not perform a training needs assessment, assume any responsibility for the IFC’s budget for the training was $567,000, customize the training materials, and collect completeness or accuracy of the and its cost recovery was 21.71 percent. fees from the participants (which was a information contained in this challenge for us, since the trainees typically document. Please see the terms We picked up some additional lessons along registered at the last minute). and conditions at www.ifc.org/ smartlessons or contact the the way which will contribute to improving program at smartlessons@ifc.org. our efforts to support SMEs. It’s also wise to advertise the training in local newspapers and via e-mail, fax, and Trainees must help pay for the instruction. telephone, to reach as many potential trainees as possible. One of the first challenges IFC‘s team faced was business peoples’ assumption that we A training needs assessment and impact would cover all the costs of the training assessment are a must. provided. In Mozambique, donors and other players frequently subsidize training. In Because of budget constraints, we didn’t Angola, business people think that the conduct a training needs assessment or an government should cover the costs. impact assessment in all cases, which was a mistake. Our priority was registering a large We organized several meetings with business number of people for the training. Reducing people to explain the objectives of the this target would have allowed us to better Entrepreneurship Development Initiative and design the program to include proper IFC’s role. assessments. SMARTLESSONS — JUNE 2011 1