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AIMING HIGH:The sprinter’s success has provided a boost to black business

THE SUCCESS of Jamaican athletes such as Usain Bolt has inspired more black entrepreneurs to look for lucrative business opportunities in the run up to the London Olympics.

With the world’s biggest sporting event, the Olympic Games coming to London next year business consultant Denis St. Bernard told The Voice that the athletes have helped create a “resurgence of identification” that has prompted Jamaican born UK residents and black Britons from other backgrounds to look towards the Olympics for more business opportunities.

“Suddenly we have a lot of people who are entrepreneurial identifying with Jamaica because of what Jamaica presents to the world now” he said

“Come the Olympics, a billion people will be looking at the biggest show on earth… so everybody wants to get a piece of that. You will see a surge of those kind of things.”

St. Bernard, a spokesperson for UK Diaspora Business, also said more should be done to document the successes of current Jamaican owned businesses in the UK. He pointed to their presence in a range of areas such as catering, film, music, sports, property, finance, retail and trade.

INVESTMENTS

He said while Jamaican owned businesses may not be highly visible, they were nonetheless quietly achieving success in their respective markets.

POSITIVE: Denis St. Bernard

“Naturally we would like to see more of these things come to the forefront and being recognised,” he said.

St. Bernard’s comments follow a recent Jamaica Gleaner interview in which the country’s High Commissioner to the UK Anthony Johnson was quoted as saying that Jamaicans “are not entrepreneurial.”

St. Bernard refuted these claims, citing high profile success such as Levi Roots, Wilfred Emmanuel Jones, founder of the Black Farmer food products chain and entrepreneur Tim Campbell, the first winner of BBC’s The Apprentice.

EVIDENCE

“I don’t agree with that statement,” said St. Bernard, founder member of support services entity, Caribbean Enterprise Network UK and CEO of Priority Group International.

St. Bernard also mentors many Caribbean entrepreneurs.

INSPIRATION: Usain Bolt

“The evidence doesn’t support that statement at all. As a matter of fact a recent report from the Bank of England on minority businesses in the UK, shows that Jamaicans in particular had one of the highest percentage of entrepreneurial skillsets or entrepreneurial attitude than any other minority community in the UK.

He added “A recent Barclays Bank report also highlighted that in the UK Black and minority ethnic minority (BME) business owners are increasingly recognised as important contributors to the small business population. Their entrepreneurial efforts are noticeable across many regions in the UK. Recent policy developments have established the significance of BME enterprise as a vehicle for promoting economic inclusion as a generator of social and financial capital and as an activity meriting dedicated support initiatives”

However, St. Bernard said there needs to be more collaboration and networking among Jamaican businesses “so we can leverage and be stronger in business.”