Linking SIYB Graduates to Financing Institutions
Acknowledging that access to finance is key to business start up and growth, the programme explored avenues for linking the SIYB beneficiaries to financing institutions. Beginning 1998, the ILO established a "linkages to finance" component to SIYB whose objectives are to:

• build and maintain a network of linkages between SIYB training providers on one hand and financing institutions on the other, in the project countries.
• establish effective links for SIYB training and credit schemes operated by local SIYB training providers. The ILO based this linkage on the assumption that properly managed collaboration between finance institutions and (SIYB) training institutions is highly beneficial to both parties and in the direct interest of the small-scale entrepreneurs. There is ample reason to support this hypothesis:
• Financing institutions directly benefit from such linkages since they can refer loan applicants to business start-up and management training first. Such clients lower the risk of defaulting on loan repayments because SIYB training assists them to develop thorough business plans, or to structure their business operations properly.
• On the other hand, SIYB training providers also benefit because they are able to offer their clients much more than mere training. In the eyes of their clients, referral services add significant value to the corporate service portfolio and make the SIYB training product more relevant to their needs.
• Potential and existing entrepreneurs benefit from the combined efforts of training providers and financing institutions working together since they are able to directly approach the latter after SIYB training for funding. SIYB acknowledges that there should be no automatic link between training and access to credit.

Progress made in Creating Linkages Relationships
In 1998 the Regional Project Office conducted promotion workshops targeting organizations in the formal and informal banking and finance sectors e.g. commercial banks, NGO's and other non-profit credit as well as donor agencies. The objective of these workshops was to introduce the banking and finance industry to the SIYB programme and to the training providers as well to discuss the potential and benefits of collaboration. After these discussions, suitable institutions were then selected for networking. In many cases, these networks have resulted in the establishment of formal linkages.

Linkages Best Practice: Experiences from Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe (see project countries) is one example where training providers, financing institutions and a dZimbabwe, Nissi Finance (Pvt) (Ltd) and the community banking section of CBZ are the micro-finance institutions. The Credit Guarantee Company of Zimbabwe is also a network partner of the linkage programme.

To start the collaboration, individual meetings were conducted with each finance institution. Next, SIYB trainers (essentially consultants from the private sector) were introduced to these finance institutions through a workshop held in February 1999. In the Zimbabwe model, private sector trainers were selected because they are unencumbered by organizational structures and thus respond quicker in meeting entrepreneurs’ needs and also they use SIYB to generate revenues for their own companies. Both the finance institutions and trainers were introduced to HIVOS Foundation, a Dutch NGO that had agreed to support entrepreneurial training in Zimbabwe by subsidizing SIYB training on a declining scale over a 3 year period..

More than 400 entrepreneurs have since benefited from these linkages between finance institutions and SIYB private trainers. These entrepreneurs were referred from the commercial banks and the micro-finance institutions to the training providers and trained with financial support from HIVOS.

Exciting spin-offs: The SIYB Credit Counselors programme
One spin-off from these linkages is the SIYB Credit Counselors Training programme. During initial discussions on possible collaboration, some micro-finance institutions expressed interest in having their credit officers trained in business management. Rather than planning to embark on their own SIYB training programme in the future, the institutions wanted to prepare their credit officers to assist loan applicants to better plan businesses.

The justification was that credit officers would develop a much better understanding of their clients’ business problems from SIYB training. They would also be able to advise clients more effectively. They would also be in a position to decide if their clients were in need of full SIYB training and to refer them to appropriate training.

The Regional Project Office developed a pilot SIYB Credit Counselors Training programme. Between 1998 and 1999, 5 workshops were conducted for micro-finance institutions in Ghana, Mozambique, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. This training familiarized workshop participants with the contents of the IYB materials (since many micro-finance institutions mostly deal with clients already in business) and on individual counseling techniques.

Impact of the Linkages Component
The July 1999 impact assessment showed that 20% of SIYB participants in the six project countries submitted their business plans for external financing. In 61% of the submitted cases, participants were referred by the SIYB programme: 58% being the SIYB trainers and 3% being the Directory of Advice and Assistance (see training materials).

How to access SIYB
To obtain further information about the SIYB programme, please contact:
ILO-SIYB Regional Project Office for Eastern and Southern Africa
101 Kwame Nkrumah Avenue
P. O. Box 3474
Harare, Zimbabwe
secretariat@ilosiyb.co.zw