Green fuel producer D1 Oils is helping to boost business activity in Swaziland.
The Middlesbrough company and Helius Energy, a biomass electricity generation business, are jointly supporting an entrepreneurship and small business development programme in Swaziland in Southern Africa.
The two companies, chaired respectively by North entrepreneurs, Karl Watkin and Alex Worrall, will back a new programme launched by the King of Swaziland, King Mswati III, and the Swaziland Prime Minister, Absalom Themba Dlamini. Messrs Watkin and Worrall recently visited Swaziland, where both companies have substantial interests, as guests of the King. They each presented cheques for £10,000 on behalf of the companies, to the Government of Swaziland to support a long-term initiative to develop a culture of entrepreneurship in the country.
The money will be used to pay for an annual entrepreneur's competition, the first of which will be held in October. The winner of the competition will visit the North-East to learn more about the region's entrepreneurial culture.
Mr Watkin said: "D1 is working with the Government of Swaziland to build a national biodiesel industry based on the planting of Jatropha curcas, an inedible, oil-bearing tree that grows on marginal land.
"Our plan in Swaziland is to develop 50,000 hectares of jatropha backed up by biodiesel refineries, which over the next 10 years could deliver more than 100,000 jobs.
"Our initial operations have created more than 200 jobs in communities that previously depended for their livelihood on subsistence farming.
"I am very pleased that my experiences of driving business change in the UK and North-East through initiatives like the Manufacturing Challenge will assist a developing economy like Swaziland."
Mr Worrall said: "I have wide experience of working in and with business development and business organisations, such as the regional chamber of commerce and Tecs in the North-East, and I am determined that the people of Swaziland should benefit from that experience through the development of a vibrant entrepreneur-based economy."