MSME Day 2020
In celebrating the Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day (MSME Day) on the 27 June, the International Trade Centre (ITC) works with partners on a series of events marking the Day across the world. This year, while facing the challenges of COVID-19, it is particularly crucial to recognize the contribution small companies made to the global economy, as well as to the promotion of innovation, creativity and decent work for all.
In the view of lockdowns taking place in many parts of the world and their impact on small businesses, ITC organized a webTV programme, featuring more than 40 diverse speakers, who gave engaging testimonials and discussed how to better support MSMEs at different levels. In particular, two of our Ye! Entrepreneurs, Nguyen Thi Huong Lien, Founder, I Love Vietnam Tours, Vietnam, and Adeloye Olanrewaju (also known as Lanre), Co-Founder and CEO, Babymigo, Nigeria, took part in the Programme and shared their immediate responses to the crisis, as well as their solutions to mitigate the impact and prepare for a 'new normal’.
For our young entrepreneur Lien, the hard strike that the pandemic took on the tourism industry, did not make her give up hope or abort her aspirations. In the face of many canceled and postponed orders from clients, Lien, as a leader of her business, encouraged the team to keep learning and developing themselves by looking for other temporary jobs and opportunities. Lien herself also led by example, taking this opportunity to delve deeper into her long term interest in socio-political issues, and started working for an NGO to gain first hand knowledge in this field.
Similarly on the African continent, our Ye! entrepreneur Lanre deeply believes that the youth are the future of tomorrow. Along with his team of youth collaborators, Lanre has created a Covidguide.africa to share information about the virus. The website provides a space for Q&A, connects the audience with doctors directly, debunks many commons myths, and is available in local languages. To date, it has reached more than 100,000 people. For more information about Lanre’s innovation and initiatives, click here
To watch the full recording of the WebTV on MSME Day 2020: The Great Lockdown and its Impact on Small Business:
FYI – Lien is sharing her experience at 34:23 and Lanre’s is sharing his experience at 1:03:10