Black Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub
by David Tulloch
In December 2021 the Honourable Mary of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business, and Economic Development who immigrated to Canada in the 197’s announced: “partners to establish a Black Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub BEKH)”, stating that “Black Canadian business owners and entrepreneurs make important contributions to the Canadian economy, yet they continue to face systemic racism and obstacles to starting and growing their businesses. The Government of Canada is working to address long-standing barriers through its first-ever Black Entrepreneurship Program, an investment of over $400 million to support the long-term success of Black entrepreneurs and business owners.” Minister Ng, selected “Carleton University and Dream Legacy Foundation to establish the Black Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub.”
Dr. Gerald Grant, the Director of the Centre for Information Technology, Organizations, and People (CITOP) and Professor of Information Systems at the Sprott School of Business, Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, was tapped to co-lead the implementation of this Federal Government initiative. Dr. Grant immigrated to Canada with his family from his native Jamaica in 1974. He initially attended Glenmuir High School in Jamaica and completed his high school education after arriving in Toronto. He attended the University of Toronto to study economics then transferred to Andrews University in the US and completed a BSc in 1978. After working for a few years, he returned to Andrews University to earn an MBA, after which he accepted a teaching position at Solusi College in Zimbabwe (now Solusi University). He lectured for several years, advancing up the ranks to become the Vice President of Finance. In 1992 he left Solusi to pursue further studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in the UK where he obtained a Ph.D. in Information Systems. While at LSE he worked for the Commonwealth Secretariat as coordinator of the Commonwealth Network of Information Technology for Development (COMNET-IT). He facilitated several technology initiatives throughout commonwealth countries, Malta, East, and Southern Africa, the Caribbean, and Asia, including serving as program coordinator for the Commonwealth-sponsored “Regional Initiative for Informatics Strategies”.
Dr. Grant returned to Canada in 1997, initially taught at McGill University, and then accepted a position at Carleton University in 1998. In his current role as the co-director of the Black Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (BEKH), he has been busy building infrastructure to assist the forthcoming research and programming. This consists of a central research hub at Carleton University, connected to several regional research hubs at other universities across Canada. His immediate goal is to implement this initial building phase within the next few months. “We’re focusing on getting things up and running and putting in place the governance structure and strategies to manage the program going forward.” Dr. Grant also indicated that he is planning to launch the first symposium in November 2022 but will be rolling out small aspects of the program over the ensuing months.
The overall objective of BEKH is to provide substantive and insightful information that will facilitate the development of black-owned businesses across Canada. He identified three key deliverables. The first is a large-scale quantitative study of Black Entrepreneurship in Canada which will start in 2023. The second is a substantive qualitative study, and the third deliverable is the creation of an interactive map of Black entrepreneur activities across Canada. The various university hubs will work with community organizations in each of the geographic areas where they are located across Canada. The work will be facilitated by a knowledge Broker who will distill the information into a consumable manner. Ultimately, the body of information will be contained within a repository that Black Entrepreneurs across Canada can access to help them make informed decisions about their businesses.
The Black Entrepreneurship Program is a partnership between the Government of Canada, Black-led business organizations, post-secondary or other accredited educational institutions, and financial institutions. It has allocated some $400 million to fund this program. Approximately $105 million will be invested in establishing a National Ecosystem, another $300 million is set aside for the Black Entrepreneurship Loan Fund, which will provide loans of up to $250,000 to Black business owners and entrepreneurs, and approximately $6.5 million will be invested in establishing the Black Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub, “which will conduct qualitative and quantitative research and collect data on the state of Black entrepreneurship in Canada and help identify Black entrepreneurs’ barriers to success as well as opportunities for growth”. Taken together, the potential benefits of this initiative are enormous.
Black entrepreneurs cite many barriers that they encounter in implementing their business ideas and in maintaining their businesses once they are established. One of the key barriers is access to investment and operational funds. This program should help to level the playing field for black entrepreneurs in Canada and provide them with better opportunities for long-term success in their endeavors.
Dave Tulloch was born in Jamaica. He immigrated to Canada in 1970 to pursue post-secondary education. He earned a diploma in electronics engineering technology from Algonquin College, a Bachelor of Admin and Bachelor of Commerce (Hon) from the University of Ottawa, and a Master of Business Administration from Concordia University. He has an extensive career in information technology and in IT consulting with Systemhouse, KPMG, and Oracle Corporation where he retired as a director. Dave taught IT and business courses at CEGEP (Hull) and tutored at the Wake Tech College in North Carolina. He wrote articles for the Ottawa Spectrum publication that focused on Ottawa’s Visible Minorities community and has written a book documenting the life stories of early Caribbean Immigrants to Ottawa, scheduled for publication later this year. He can be contacted via email: [email protected]