Entre­pren­eurs urged to work hard, embrace chal­lenges

RANAU: Entre­pren­eurs must con­tinue work­ing hard and have the cour­age to move for­ward to achieve suc­cess, said Pub­lic Works and Util­it­ies Min­istry polit­ical sec­ret­ary Datuk Arthur Sen Siong Soo.

He said the suc­cess of any enter­prise ulti­mately depended on the entre­pren­eur’s own efforts and com­mit­ment.

“Whether an enter­prise suc­ceeds or not depends on the entre­pren­eur. Oppor­tun­it­ies and sup­port are import­ant, but entre­pren­eurs must con­tinue to work hard and have the cour­age to move for­ward,” he said when launch­ing the Dumo­Wongi Usa­han­ita Open Day 2026 at the Dumo­Wongi Centre in Kam­pung Bundu Tuhan recently.

He said Ranau needed more entre­pren­eurs cap­able of build­ing their own busi­nesses and cre­at­ing oppor­tun­it­ies for the com­munity.

He added that pro­grammes such as Usa­han­ita were pos­it­ive ini­ti­at­ives as they helped com­munit­ies develop skills, gen­er­ate income and ulti­mately work towards escap­ing poverty.

Dumo­Wongi founder and chief exec­ut­ive officer Irene Mos­itol said the Usa­han­ita Pro­gramme provided par­ti­cipants with a plat­form to pro­mote and sell products under their respect­ive brands.

She said the three-year Usa­han­ita Towards a Sus­tain­able Mar­ket pro­gramme was fun­ded by Yay­asan Axi­ata, coordin­ated by the Sabah Social Entre­pren­eurs Asso­ci­ation (SOSEA) and imple­men­ted by Dumo­Wongi.

The pro­gramme began in Septem­ber 2025 and involves 20 women’s com­munity groups receiv­ing train­ing in product devel­op­ment, brand­ing, fin­an­cial man­age­ment and mar­ket­ing.

Mean­while, five products by Usa­han­ita par­ti­cipants were launched dur­ing the open day. They were Aki Nabalu 7 Herbs by Epha Hand­made; com­post products by Suni On; Kale Sapit Bis­cuits by Alu­maag; Togi­ung ii Gugu­mo­mpi book by Tan­gon­TeaL­in­sou; and Dalai Koo­lig book by Won­soi.

Irene said the open day also served as a reg­u­lar mar­ket­ing plat­form held every three to five months, provid­ing par­ti­cipants with oppor­tun­it­ies to pro­mote their products, attract new cus­tom­ers and increase sales.

“We want par­ti­cipants not only to know how to pro­duce products, but also to have the con­fid­ence to stand behind their own brands, gen­er­ate income and become inde­pend­ent in man­aging their busi­nesses,” she said.

She also hoped the pro­gramme would con­tinue to receive sup­port from the local com­munity, asso­ci­ations, gov­ern­ment agen­cies and stra­tegic part­ners to ensure the con­tin­ued suc­cess of women’s entre­pren­eur­ship devel­op­ment activ­it­ies.