Date & Timestamp : 12/20/2017

Season’s Greetings!

We hope that 2017 has blessed you greatly. If you’re a part of our newsletter list, you may have noticed that you heard from us a bit less this year. As a small but mighty team, we’ve been focusing our efforts toward recruiting new licensing prospects and growing the BDC Network.

2017 brought with it a lot of interest, and long-standing candidates we’re now proud to call licensees. Most newsworthy, this year we opened two additional Business Development Centers (BDCs):

1. BDC Burkina Faso – bdcburkinafaso.com

Led by Israel Ilboudo of ACTS Burkina, BDC Burkina Faso is in the middle of its first run through of the curriculum, and plans to host its first official cohort in March of 2018. Israel translated BDC training materials and the website into French to appeal to a wide audience in this French-speaking nation. We thank Israel for his work. Having the materials in French makes the BDC more attractive to potential licensees in West Africa and the Caribbean.

2. BDC Lagos Mainland —(website in production)

Ibrahim Dikko, CEO of Open Places Nig. Ltd., is the leader of BDC Lagos Mainland. He originally served as a Visiting Executive to BDC Uganda before catching a vision to start one in his own community. They hope to host their first cohort in early 2018 as well. They’ve diligently been solidifying their internal structure and recruiting for quality students.

Prospective BDC’s

We’ve also received inquiries and developments in the following nations: Senegal, Zambia, Ethiopia, Haiti, Cameroon, Kenya, the Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, additional parts of Nigeria, and even China.

BDC Development

We continue to look for additional revenue sources for the BDCs, often drawing on the experience of existing BDCs. BDC Bangalore and Uganda are renting office space to small, growing businesses. In addition to the space, the BDCs provide mentoring, coaching and consulting to the businesses.

BDC Rwanda has sponsored two investment expos that have resulted in investments from Americans in promising businesses. The BDC not only helps find those businesses, but also helps monitor and manage the investment. We are working with the developer of high-quality leadership training materials, which we hope will open up both training and consulting opportunities for BDCs to sell to larger organizations. We plan to further explore and develop these efforts in 2018.

RCE remains steadfast to its original, core mission – transforming people and nations through business, and partnering with like-minded individuals and organizations who are passionate believers and wish to see lives impacted by the gospel.

Get Involved

We appreciate your support and interest in the work we are doing. We encourage you to remain involved in the following avenues:

• Become a newsletter subscriber, so you’re the first to hear about RCE and BDC Network updates (subscribe below!)
• Becoming a Distance Consultant (DC)
• Becoming a Visiting Executive (VE) – *We are currently looking for VE’s interested in traveling to Burkina Faso to support their first Cohort in early 2018. If you’re interested, simply reply to this email stating your desire to learn more. (Please note: The original timeframe of this trip was postponed from its original date of Fall 2017.)
• Becoming an RCE Ambassador, one of our valued financial partners
• Donating a one-time or reoccurring gift to RCE
• Becoming a BDC Licensee (Please reply to state your interest & share more about your vision.)
• Becoming an investor or accounting partner to one of our existing BDC locations &/or its graduates’ businesses (Please email rce@regent.edu to learn more.)
• Pray for RCE, the BDC Network, and the transformation of those touched by the work we’re doing

Thank you again for being a part of our community. We wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Warm Regards,

The RCE Team