Creatives and innovators are being offered $30 000 in cash prizes as the fourth annual Marcus Garvey Entrepreneurship Pitch Competition opened on Friday, with organisers seeking to expand participation and drive business development in the cultural industries.
The initiative, a collaboration between the Division of Culture and the Office of Pan-African Affairs and Heritage, will accept submissions until midnight on July 31. It challenges citizens to bridge the gap between creative talent and commercial enterprise, with organisers aiming to double participation for a fourth consecutive year after entries grew from 15 in 2023 to more than 60 in 2025.
Rodney Grant, a programme advisor in the Division of Culture, said current global economic pressures present an opportunity for innovation, pointing to historical patterns across the Caribbean.
Rodney Grant, Program Advisor in the Division of Culture. (Photo credit: Ricardo Roberts/Barbados TODAY)
“Within contemporary economics… when societies face particular challenges is when you see innovation at its best,” Grant said. “I remember in Trinidad, because I spent a lot of time in Trinidad in the 80s, when Trinidad and other Caribbean societies would have gone through their most difficult times is when you will see most creativity among most people. This contemporary world economy creates the right opportunity for innovation and creativity to flourish.”
Grant urged young Barbadians to take the lead in shaping the future of the creative industries.
“We’re specifically encouraging young people. This is your time. This is the time for the cultural and creative sectors to strive, and the young people are the ones who have their pulse in it, have their fingers on the buttons.”
The competition offers a top prize of $20 000, with $7 000 for second place and $3 000 for third. This year’s format will move away from the previous public final, returning instead to a private preliminary elimination process followed by a closed pitch session before a specialist panel for five shortlisted finalists.
At the launch, emphasis was also placed on the need for Barbadian entrepreneurs to scale their ideas beyond the domestic market. Minister of Pan-African Affairs and Heritage Trevor Prescod highlighted the global potential of cultural products, from fine arts to traditional foods, citing the example of a Barbadian expatriate who financed property in New York through the sale of traditional sweet bread.
Grant also sought to reassure prospective applicants who may feel unprepared, stressing that incomplete business models should not deter participation.
“We don’t expect that you’re gonna have every T crossed, every I dotted,” he said. “If you wait for perfection, we will never start or we will never do anything. Nothing in this world requires perfection, but it requires me to start and to have an understanding… We would have an understanding of what the person is trying to pitch and to achieve.”
Prescod framed the competition within the wider context of the Season of Emancipation, challenging perceptions about entrepreneurship in Caribbean society.
“We took the poison that an entrepreneur is a man born with specific endowments… that the person that was the entrepreneur had to be a man with special divine qualities from God, and that few of us really had the capacity,” Prescod declared. “If you knew history prior to slavery, you would have known that it is not true, because we have successfully built many empires, many businesses. There’s lots of creativity coming from our people.”
Invoking Marcus Garvey’s legacy, Prescod noted that the Jamaican leader established international shipping lines, printeries and publications in the 1920s without formal academic training.
“He didn’t say you have to be an economist, he didn’t say you have to study law,” Prescod said. “What Garvey was saying to us, what is most important, is not only the discipline, but knowledge—seek knowledge. A man of that kind can achieve anything that he wants as a result of exploring the world of knowledge.”
The minister also linked the initiative to broader goals of economic transformation, arguing that business ownership is central to addressing inequality.
“I don’t want to hide and just leave out the important adjective: black economic enfranchisement. There can’t be a country with over 96 per cent being of African descent and we are wrestling over just controlling black businesses, and worst of all, only black small businesses. I want to see all excel to the greatest heights.”
To support applicants, the Division of Culture is publishing a detailed outline of what constitutes the cultural and creative sectors, encouraging entrants to think beyond traditional definitions.
Submissions may be made individually or in groups via the official Google Sheet link available on the social media platforms of the Division of Culture and the Government Information Service. Those experiencing digital access challenges can request alternative submission arrangements by emailing culture.coe@barbados.gov.bb before the July 31 deadline.
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