KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 1): State-owned private equity firm Ekuiti Nasional Bhd (Ekuinas) has opened the application for its Iltizam Catalyst 2024 as part of its corporate social responsibility programme to help create strong Bumiputera entrepreneurs and sustainable enterprises.

Introduced in 2022, Ekuinas’ Iltizam Catalyst is an annual 12-month business capacity building programme to empower Bumiputera small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to overcome core pain points and strengthen business fundamentals in four critical areas - financial and compliance, branding and digital marketing, technology adoption, and leadership - placing them on a sustainable growth trajectory.

Applications are now open until Aug 15, 2024, for Bumiputera SMEs with a minimum two-year profit record and annual revenue of between RM300,000 and RM1 million.

A total of RM1.2 million has been allocated for this programme, Ekuinas chief executive officer Datuk Syed Yasir Arafat Syed Abdul Kadir said.

The allocation will not be channelled directly through financial assistance to the companies, but rather in terms of capacity building initiatives such as training programmes and marketing efforts.

The target is to take in about 12 to 15 companies each year and the programme gets between 130 and 150 applications each year, Syed Yasir said.

"We like businesses with clear differentiation,” he said. “The problem with a lot of Bumiputera businesses [is that] they are all concentrated in the same area.”

He advised candidates to highlight the uniqueness of their business.

Ekuinas director of stakeholders' interest Hizwani Hassan explained that the programme involves a six-month training programme, followed by another six months of progress monitoring.

Among the key performance indicators that Ekuinas has set for this programme are to improve the companies' clarity of business direction, financial strength and business compliance, product profitability, brand presence and business visibility, and entrepreneurial and leadership capabilities.

"These Bumiputera entrepreneurs usually have similar issues which are marketing, financing, governance as well as leadership," Hizwani said.

Earlier, Ekuinas celebrated 17 Bumiputera SMEs from across seven business sectors that graduated from the 2023 cohort. So far, the programme has accelerated business growth for 38 Bumiputera SMEs in total since its inception in 2022.

The 12-month programme combines assessment, technical and non-technical training by expert consultants, mentorship by industry leaders, and monitoring - aimed at helping entrepreneurs strengthen business fundamentals and chart strategy and sustain growth.

Iltizam is Ekuinas' corporate social responsibility arm that undertakes sustainable development efforts by reaching out to the wider Bumiputera community via three pillars, namely education, entrepreneurship and community programmes.

In 2023, Ekuinas through Iltizam, disbursed a total of RM13.8 million through its initiatives, benefiting a total of 74,000 individuals, families, entrepreneurs and businesses across Malaysia. 

https://www.theedgemarkets.com/node/721266