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Training manual for micro, small and medium entrepreneurs in energy business financing

4pm, July 28th, 2015
This training manual is a modular guide to enable energy entrepreneurs to acquire supplementary knowledge in order to expand their energy businesses. It provides guidelines on business delivery models, business and financial management, and the sources of business finance.
The Global Village Energy Partnership (GVEP) International with funding support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) developed this training manual to build further the knowledge base on energy service and product delivery of micro, small and medium energy entrepreneurs in East Africa.
The training manual is developed as a modular guide to enable energy entrepreneurs to acquire supplementary knowledge in order to expand their energy businesses. It provides guidelines on business delivery models, business and financial management, and the sources of business finance. It is expected that this training manual will assist energy entrepreneurs to be favorably positioned for linkages that would be suited to various sources of finance.
The training manual consists of  six modules:
Module 1 Introduction to the energy sector:
This module introduces types of energy technologies where it differentiates renewable and non renewable sources of energy. It further highlights various applications for energy as well as giving practical examples. Lastly, the module highlights trends in energy use and benefits.
Module 2 Types of business delivery models:
This module discusses business delivery models and their application to the SME sector. Focus is placed on how the SME sector can apply different models in a business set up while differentiating how each model interacts with the customer.
Module 3 Business and financial management for energy enterprises:
This module discusses management issues such as planning, organizing, staffing leadership and control. It also introduces concepts in financial management, budgeting and costing of an energy business.
Module 4 Growing an energy business:
This module discusses business opportunities that may arise in the energy sector and entrepreneurial issues. It also discusses growth strategies and how they can be adopted by energy SMEs. Also included is the business planning process and financial plan.
Module 5 Sources of business finance for  energy entrepreneurs:
This module discusses financing for SMEs as a critical part of enterprise development. It seeks to raise awareness of the various sources that an entrepreneur can utilize to raise capital and operational resources for their businesses. It highlights key considerations for borrowing, costs related to borrowing as well as the process of loan negotiation for energy entrepreneurs. It concludes by discussing the loan management and repayment.
Module 6 Marketing and branding by energy entrepreneurs:
This module discusses the marketing activities that could be employed by an energy entrepreneur. It also highlights the importance of branding an energy business and discusses concepts in business positioning.

Institutions Involved

  • Global Village Energy Partnership (GVEP) International and the US Agency for International Development (USAID)
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