DTI-6 produces 51 new KMME graduates

Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Region 6 Assistant Regional Director Ermelinda Pollentes congratulated the new batch of graduates of the DTI Region 6’s Kapatid Mentor Me: Money and Market Encounter Program (KMME MME) during the virtual graduation held July 29, 2022 via Zoom.

DTI-6 has produced 51 female graduates from Region 6’s various provinces and one guest mentee from the Province of Bohol.

wThese micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) from all over the region have successfully passed the qualifications and challenges set by the KMME-MME.

Provincial Director Judith Degala of DTI Iloilo Provincial Office, which hosted the graduation, said that the program’s key goal is to improve mentees’ entrepreneurship capacity through improved access to mentorship, money, and market.

Project KMME is an initiative of the DTI in partnership with the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship (PCE) – Go Negosyo to help and mentor entrepreneurs through online mentoring. It has been implemented throughout the region since it was piloted in 2016 in the Province of Iloilo, producing the first 17 mentee graduates.

The second batch with 51 mentees graduated today after completing the activities and requirements during the entire duration of the virtual mentoring, which ran for three months.

For the past five years, a total of 644 graduates benefitted from the project, which empowered entrepreneurs and provided them with additional knowledge and skills through the weekly online mentoring and coaching sessions/modules to help them face the challenges of the fast-changing entrepreneurial landscape during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ARD Pollentes extends her gratitude to the PCE- Go Negosyo for the birth of the KMME online, a digitalized version of KMME which became more relevant with the COVID-19 upending lives and businesses all over the world.

It was developed as a useful method of delivering the same mentorship modules to MSEs to help them thrive despite the unprecedented setbacks currently facing businesses of all shapes and sizes.

Mr. Joey Concepcion, the founder of PCE-Go Negosyo, pledges to continue providing the best mentorship as business owners and practitioners in various functional areas of entrepreneurship serve as coaches and mentors among the mentees.

He emphasized the value of mentorship and how it can help mentees develop their capacities for accessing capital and the market, allowing them to pivot and prepare for the new normal.

“Despite the pandemic, we will continue the KMME program to bring greater inclusivity in the economy.”, he said.

Aside from a 10-module mentorship, the program now includes coaching sessions to help mentees draft their Business Improvement Plans (BIPs) and improve their materials and presentation skills.

Pollentes hopes that the mentees will take advantage of the opportunities provided to them and challenge other MSMEs to use technology in their business operations in addition to being in the online marketplace.

She expects the mentees to become mentors soon, apply what they’ve learned from the program, be more confident to scale up to greater heights and continue collaborating with other MSMEs, partner government agencies, and the private sector.