BY ARLENE MARTIN-WILKINS Associate editor - news martina@jamaicaobserver.com Thursday, June 05, 2014
MONTEGO BAY, St James — Six entrepreneurs, including two Jamaicans, were Tuesday night recognised for their successes as microentrepreneurs at the third annual Citi Foundation-Caribbean Microfinance Alliance (Citi-CMFA) awards, which formed part of the Fifth Caribbean Microfinance Forum (CMF V) now on at Iberostar Rose Hall Suites Hotel in St James.
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| CITI CMFA Caribbean Microfinance Awards winners Samuel Andrew (third left), Eider Romero (5th left) and Eved Jose Corado (sixth left) pose with (from left) the Multilateral Investment Fund's Ryan Tang and Winsome Leslie; Therese Turner Jones, Inter American Development Bank; Christopher Johnston, Citi Jamaica; and Michell Scott and Ramesh Persaud, Caribbean Microfinance Alliance. |
The two Jamaicans were noted photographer William Foster, who operates Foster's Photo Studio in Kingston, and Elsa Waysome, who started T&T Herbs in Clarendon which processes and sells dried herbs such as cerasse, sarsaparilla, and Meringa. Foster and Waysome finished second in their respective categories — Best Technology Microentrepreneur and Best Rural Microentrepreneur — at an awards ceremony that saw two Belizeans and a Grenadian winning the three top prizes.
Belizean Eved Jose Corado copped the Best Technology Award — a plaque and US$3,000 cash prize — for a tech company he started in the rural San Jose Village in 2009 with a microloan. The company, Etech Services, offers a range of services covering photocopying, graphic design, video editing and the repair and unlocking of cellular phones.
Meanwhile, the Best Rural Microentrepreneur category was topped by Grenadian Samuel Andrew, another microloan beneficiary, who was honoured for setting up a modern farm in Hartford Village in the Spice Island.
The third category, Best Young Entrepreneur, was won by 16-year-old Belizean Eider Romero, who started his fruit popsicle business in 2009 with a loan from his parents. A micro loan from a credit union later helped Eider to expand ER's Icy Treats to the point where it now turns over US$45,000 in annual sales and employs six people. Another Belizean, 25-year-old Eliel Reynoso, finished second in the category for his business, Hawaiian Ice Parlour, that serves up tangy sweet-and-sour snow cones. more
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