Carnival Protege KUSKOP 2024 a resounding success

27 October 2024

By AVV

KOTA KINABALU: The two-day Carnival Protégé KUSKOP 2024 held at the Sabah International Convention Centre (SICC) that ended today was a resounding success with many positive feedback from participating entrepreneurs.  

Most of the participants were already out of items for sale before the carnival ended today, showing almost empty display booths and some had already packed up and left.

Nurin Batrisya Abdullah, a protégé from University Sabah Malaysia (UMS) who was selling her wares at SICC for two days expressed her excitement in participating the event. She says her cookies are made from home. She operates under the name Ningz Enterprise, and this was her first time selling in public.

Nurul Amyrah Nazwa Abdullah of Munira Niaga, also expressed her excitement saying that her wares were an attraction during the two-day event. Her products are mostly Islamic Motifs and Crafts but they also specialises in unique creative portraits and crafts for gifts and souvenirs. Her shop is located at Masjid Bandaraya

On the carnival, she said she was invited by AIM an agency under MEDC to participate and she was glad that she did. She hoped that the carnival will be held again in future.

Jumina Marandan from Munira Maju Enterprise specialises in selling ready-to-eat packaged food, and she was impressed as there was a good turnout of customers eager to make purchases.

“Participating in this carnival offers a unique experience that is hard to find elsewhere, and I am pleased with my sales performance. I sincerely hope that this ministry will organise more events like this in the future. I am grateful for the opportunity to be part of this event and look forward to its continuation. Additionally, I hope that other ministries will also take notice and provide similar support to us,” she said.

Vinothini a/p Chandra Mohan was very excited to be part of the carnival as an entrepreneurial participant. Her booth is called Singgah Kopi UMS and sell coffee and food. She opined that this event should be continued in the future as it provided opportunities for many young entrepreneurs.

“I am happy to attend this event,” she enthused.

Zaleha Ali from the Program Usaha Jaya Insan (PUJI) specialises in sambal tahai and black sambal tahai, while her business partner, Ermawati, offers belacan sambal bilis and kekek fish sambal. Both are based in the Labuan Federal Territory.

“We are grateful to the MEDC for inviting us to participate in this event and for their support in helping us showcase our self-developed products. We look forward to the opportunity to participate in a similar event in the future.”

Nurizawana Suraman from MA Genuine Boutique shared that she was very happy with her two-day participation in the carnival and hoped that she will have the same opportunity in future.

During the event agencies under the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperative (MEDC/KUSKOP) were present to share their services and main functions. The agencies included Bank Rakyat, UDA, TEKUN and Institute Koperasi Malaysia. SME Corp, Pernas, INSKEN and SME Bank as well as Malaysian Cooperative Commission (MCC) also manned booths at the site.

The main objectives of the programmes organised by PROTÉGÉ was to reduce the unemployment rate among graduates by providing early exposure to employability and entrepreneurship programmes and initiatives, provide a clear understanding and widespread dissemination of the role of PROTÉGÉ to the target groups and assist graduates in facing the challenges of the job market by implementing structured training programmes related to employability and entrepreneurship.

It was also to help the implementing companies of the PROTÉGÉ-RTW programme to find suitable candidates and foster an interest in entrepreneurship to reduce reliance on salaried employment among graduates and increase the number of entrepreneurs and job creators by 2030.