Wellington-based investment company, the Fiso Group, has today announced that it will be rolling out a business mentoring programme to provide skills development to emerging Pasifika-owned businesses.
Fiso John Fiso, who owns and operates the Fiso Group, said: “It is critical that we encourage the next generation of Kiwi-born Pasifika entrepreneurs to stand on their own and create their own destinies, secure income and prosperity for themselves, their families and communities. This can be done through business ownership, rather than Government hand-outs.
“I would like to help the business leaders of tomorrow by offering a business mentoring programme so that they can grow their knowledge and acumen,” said Mr Fiso.
Mr Fiso also spoke to a group of young scholarship recipients gathered from across the Pacific region who are in New Zealand as part of a training programme sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and Skills Consulting Group (SCG), He Manawa Tītī Scholarship. The group was being hosted by the Wellington Pasifika Business Network.
He Manawa Tītī Scholarship offered by MFAT is part of the reparations package of new initiatives to support the 2021 Dawn Raids apology. The young scholars aged 25 – 35 have been identified as emerging leaders both within their own countries, and across the Pacific.
Part of the programme offers workshops where scholarship recipients listen, learn and experience work alongside existing successful Māori and Pasifika leaders and businesses within New Zealand. Fiso John Fiso was selected by Wellington Pasifika Business Network as one of the leaders to speak to the group of scholarship recipients.
Mr Fiso shared with the group his own journey to success, based on Pasifika values of family and community, and how the successful future of the Pacific region is in the hands of the young, smart and creative people on the scholarship programme.
Mr Fiso talked of his own recent travel to the Pacific islands to meet with Ministers and discuss issues in the region such as climate change, geopolitical tensions, RSE programmes, and complexities around financial and governance systems. Mr Fiso also highlighted the importance of technology in solving problems.
Also speaking to the scholarship group today was Frieda Crawford, chief executive of the Wellington Pasifika Business Network; Wellington Pasifika Business Network board member Sandy Antipas; Tyrone McAuley, Chief Operations Officer and Co-Owner at Pik Pok; Toli Sagaga, Director of the Pacific Justice Sector Programme, and Tupe Solomon-Tanoa’i, Chief Philanthropic Officer at the Michael and Suzanne Borrin Foundation.
More information on the Fiso Group business mentoring programme will be released in due course.
