Entrepreneurship among African community leaders
27 July 2010
LJMU’s Business Development Centre (BDC) and its Start-Up Network for graduate entrepreneurs recently met with a delegation of 15 female community leaders from a number of African nations.
The delegation was in Liverpool for a Leadership Development Programme organised by Liverpool Hope University and the Council of African Provinces in Africa (CAPA).
Dr Maria Akrofi, a prominent doctor and wife of the Archbishop of West Africa, devised and implemented the programme and contacted the BDC for help in organising a networking event for the delegation. Dr Akrofi was particularly keen for them to meet graduate female entrepreneurs from the LJMU Start-Up Network who could share their success stories and hopefully inspire the ladies with enterprising ideas to take back to their home countries.
Melanie Jones, the BDC’s Communications Manager, represented LJMU at the networking event and facilitated an informal session on enterprise and business start-up at LJMU. Business women from the LJMU Start-Up Network who have founded graduate businesses then outlined their journey from university to setting up in business.
Kayleigh Baccino and Talia Baccino of Trendy Vend Ltd and Jessica Houghton of Expert Language Solutions described the support they had received to develop their business ideas from the Business Development Centre’s Student Enterprise team and other sources in and around Liverpool and the challenges, potential pitfalls and exhilaration that goes along with setting up in business. They then fielded a range of interesting questions from the delegation.
Speaking afterwards, Melanie said: "It was an honour to meet such an interesting group of women and to share something of the entrepreneurial spirit that exists in Liverpool and which we at LJMU work so hard to foster and support in our graduate community. The successful entrepreneurs from Trendy Vend Ltd and Expert Language Solutions gave honest accounts of their experiences and the community leaders were clearly impressed by the support available to budding entrepreneurs and by the women’s business acumen and tenacity."
For more information on the LJMU Start-Up Network, please contact Dominique Aspey in the BDC on: 0151 231 8062 or email: d.aspey@ljmu.ac.uk
