More people will be assisted to start their businesses as there will be an increase in the allocation of Business Start-Up Grants in the upcoming budget.
This revelation was made by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Professor Biman Prasad during the disbursement of business start-up grants to 21 tertiary graduates who have completed the training component of the Graduate Business Start-Up Grant Scheme.
The 21 graduates received $5,000 each to start their business.
While officiating at the event, Professor Prasad says they will not only continue to support these recipients, but they will increase allocation so that they can encourage and support more young people with additional funding as well.
He says this is also a message and a signal to the donor agencies and private sectors to invest further in such innovative schemes.
Professor Prasad says businesses that are established, supporting this program and engaging with our young entrepreneurs - the government will ensure that they succeed.
Professor Prasad says the formulation of the MSME Strategy that the government is currently developing through the Ministry of Trade will address some of the entrepreneurial system gaps that exist.
Meanwhile, the grant handover marks the first time a privately led education sector business incubator program has provided the 21 incubates with business training, advisory, mentoring, and refining of their business concepts into bankable and scalable business plans and entrepreneurship attachments.
The scheme was made possible through public-private partnerships between the Ministry of Education, Tertiary Scholarships and Loans Service, and the Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation.
The Government allocated a total of $300,000 in the current national budget to support this initiative.
The 2025-2026 national budget will be tabled in Parliament on June 27th.
