HOWZAT

The first course run by the South Cork Enterprise Board has participants from countries such as Ukraine, Poland, India, Nigeria and Cameroon.

Extra courses are now being organised. “There is enormous pent-up demand for entrepreneurship among ethnic minorities in Cork,” he said. “Most of the people coming to Ireland, especially from African countries, will have been involved in trade of one kind or another and will already have trade and negotiation skills. It would be a shame not to develop that.”

The benefits will be enjoyed by the economy as well as the individuals. “In countries that have promoted ethnic minorities setting up their own business, you find the ethnic minorities are more enterprising than the indigenous population,” said Owusu-Ansah. “In the UK, for example, ethnic minorities are three times more likely to establish a business than the indigenous population.”

Sean O’Sullivan, of the South Cork Enterprise Board, agrees. “The very fact that somebody will come here shows an entrepreneurial flavour, an openness to taking risk, that can be tapped into,” he said. It mirrors the experience of Irish people abroad, according to Patricia Callan, assistant director of the SFA and one of the originators of the Emerge programme. “When Irish people went abroad they were very entrepreneurial,” she said. “Right now 7% of the population are not Irish nationals and the economy needs another 50,000 to come into the workplace each year. That provides us as a country with a big opportunity to keep generating enterprise,” she said.

Callan believes that Irish banks are keen to promote themselves to ethnic minorities and she points out that many already translate literature into foreign languages. At least one bank branch, she said, has an in-house translator for Chinese and another is considering a telephone-based language unit for use by all branches.

This is just a start, however, and Chinedu Onyejelem, founding editor of the country’s first multicultural newspaper, Metro Eireann, believes that the two main barriers to ethnic entrepreneurs are lack of access to finance and information.

Before setting up the monthly newspaper five years ago, the Nigerian freelanced for publications as diverse as the Irish Catholic and the Wall Street Journal. He also worked part time for The Irish Times’s website, Ireland.com.

With a background in publishing, he was keen to establish his own venture.

The business was set up with a combination of savings and a €2,500 loan from the Terenure Enterprise Centre. The company now has an office on the North Circular Road, employs two full-time staff, two part-time staff and “makes a small profit”.

Positioning itself as the primary source of news and information for Ireland’s fast-growing immigrant and ethnic communities, the paper has a circulation of 15,000. Onyejelem is working towards a weekly publication date.

If others are to emulate his success, the government needs “to develop policies and programmes to encourage ethnic entrepreneurship,” he said.

Onyejelem believes the Revenue Commissioners should also tailor tax information and services to the needs of ethnic entrepreneurs.

For further information on programmes in your area, contact Noreen Keegan Kavanagh, the national co- ordinator at 01 414 5700 or noreen@equalemerge.ie Information on Emerge is available at www.equalemerge.ie