Canadian Black Chamber of Commerce (CBCC) has launched a Prince Edward Island (P.E.I) chamber.
According to Yahoo News, CBCC hosted an event announcing the new chamber on Thursday. The event was attended by several officials and budding entrepreneurs with the City of Charlottetown.
“Since 18 years ago when I came to PEI, the Black diaspora has been growing exponentially,” Kevin Lloyd
, a business owner, and CBCC business manager, said to CBC.com. “A lot of the demographics are now diverse here. A lot of [Black Islanders] are here who want to start businesses and they don’t have the tools and the knowledge to do so.”Lloyd’s drilling company, which he did not name, gets a lot of work in Nova Scotia, telling CBC.com that the entire country is open for business. The enthusiastic business owner also mentioned to CBC.com that connecting Blacks with other Blacks to hopefully open up novice entrepreneurs to funding opportunities is the mission of CBCC.
“They don’t have the information. They don’t know where to go to,” Lloyd added. “Funding is the cornerstone of any business, if you don’t have funding to do your business, you can’t do your business.”
The National Black Chamber of Commerce was created in 1933 to help Black entrepreneurs sustain independent businesses. Black Chamber of Commerce has chapters all over the country, with P.E.I. being the latest.
Michael Forrest, CBCC’s founder, traveled to P.E.I. for the launch and said the new chapter would open new opportunities for Blacks in Canada.
“[W]hether from the African continent or from the Caribbean or born here in this great country of Canada, we want to find ways to connect you to make sure that we can start creating and bringing the legacy of our Black global history together in one place, one time,” Forrest tells CBC.com.