The Centre for African Leadership Studies has graduated the first 30 business mentors that will provide advice and support to entrepreneurs who are looking to improve their businesses. The trainees, the first for the country, took a three-month online training programme.

The Centre trained the mentors in cooperation with xHub and MasterCard Foundation, which committed 250,000 dollars to support the project. The graduated mentors, who studied various entrepreneurial leadership lessons and skills during the training, will advise 20 small and micro-enterprises across the country.

Held last Friday, the virtual graduation was attended by Filsan Abdullahi, minister of Women, Children & Youth, Nigussu Tilahun, the Jobs Creation Commissioner, and Alemayehu Konde Koira, head of MasterCard Foundation Ethiopia.

The project aims at solving mentorship shortages to new entrepreneurs and business developers, according to Tewodros Tadesse, founder and CEO of the Centre for African Leadership Studies, which was established in 2012.

The Centre launched the second incubation hub of the nation, xHub, in 2014. The xHub incubator is tasked with mentoring young entrepreneurs to develop businesses and services in the fields of information technology, agribusiness, communication, health, transportation, engineering, art, design and education. Since its establishment, xHub graduates have launched 20 start-ups.

The idea to graduate business mentors came after the Centre and the Foundation saw that the trained entrepreneurs were being challenged by a shortage of mentorship support, according to Tewodros.

“We understood that new entrepreneurs need skilled mentors to manage their business and resources effectively,” said Tewodros.

The lack of skilled mentors especially for small and micro start-ups has been a major challenge in the country, according to Alemayehu of MasterCard Foundation, which pledges to support the Centre's goal of graduating 60 mentors in the next three months.

"Many micro and small-enterprises have been failing due to the lack of appropriate mentorship," said Tewodros.

"The Foundation will keep on helping the graduated mentors by providing technical support to develop their business enterprises, build a business network, or establish incubation centres," Alemayehu said.