November 11, 2007

CIB INVESTS IN ENTREPRENEURS

Clico Investment Bank (CIB) will invest five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) over a period of five (5) years (2007 – 2011) to the University of Trinidad and Tobago’s (UTT) Industrial Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Management (IIEM) Business Plan Competition.

The University’s IIEM Programme is being implemented with the assistance of the University of Cambridge. The objective is for the Programme to become a teaching, research and consulting centre for excellence, culminating with the Business Plan Competition, a model adopted by accredited business schools in the United Kingdom, the United States and elsewhere.

CIB is the major sponsor of the Business Plan Competition which challenges students to design a product that is innovative, able to meet industry needs in Trinidad and Tobago, and has the potential to be marketed both regionally and internationally.

At the inaugural Awards Function recently held at the University’s O’Meara Campus, President and CEO of CIB, Richard Trotman, provided a brief history of the Bank, stating that CIB was born from one of the Caribbean’s most illustrious entrepreneurs, Cyril Duprey. He explained that Duprey added value to the lives of many persons in society when he formed Colonial Life Insurance Company. CLICO, Trotman added, has now grown into the CL Financial Group encompassing more than 65 companies operating in 26 countries worldwide. CIB is a wholly owned subsidiary of CL Financial Limited.

Describing CIB, in particular, as the “Entrepreneurial Bank”, Trotman suggested that because of the risk aversion of the traditional banking sector, his company, has been able to provide an investment source that was lacking. According to Trotman, this was made possible when the Bank became the first financial institution to launch a venture capital company in this country, AddVenture Capital Fund, thereby supplying the market with much needed venture capital financing.

Trotman revealed that the intention of the Bank is to forge an ongoing relationship with the Programme to facilitate the development of young entrepreneurs.