Black businesses and their importance to the local and UK economy

In the run-up to Black Pound Day, business and public sector leaders discuss the importance of Black businesses to the local and nationwide economy.

What is Black Pound Day?

More than simply one day per year, Black Pound Day is a national movement that encourages consumers to switch up their usual shopping destinations to local and online Black-owned businesses, every first Saturday of the month.

It aims to positively impact the UK's shopping habits by encouraging them to become more inclusive, whilst, adding value to the Black economy and communities.

But the phenomenal impact of this movement, has also re-ignited the debate on fair and equal representation and support of black-owned businesses and their economic contribution to the UK, which is currently estimated to be £25 billion per year.

Speakers include...

Cllr Sharon Thompson, Cabinet Member – Homes and Neighbourhoods

Birmingham City Council Cabinet Member for Homes and Neighbourhoods, Councillor Sharon Thompson, has been a Councillor since 2014. She served as Victims Champion for the city from 2014-2015, before becoming the local authority’s first Ambassador for addressing Homelessness and Roughsleeping. In 2016 she became the Cabinet Advisor for Homelessness from 2017-2018 and relinquished the position in May 2018 when she was appointed to Cabinet.

She has political leadership responsibility for many areas such as housing including; Homelessness and Private Rented Sector Policy, alongside Bereavement Services and Localisation. In 2018/19 she had political responsibility for Parks and Allotments, she relinquished these in 2019/2020 and took the functions of registrations of birth, deaths and marriage into her portfolio.

Joel Blake OBE

Joel is a multi-award-winning businessman, public speaker and advisor, with a passion for driving business growth, through financial technology and entrepreneurial leadership.

Joel is the Founder & CEO of www.gfaexchange.com an award-winning B2B FinTech company, that provides machine learning solutions to reduce risk and cost for financial services firms.

He is the former Executive for Access to Finance and Growing Business for the GBSLEP, and advises professional and public sector bodies, on their business support models and strategies.

Joel is also the President of the Commonwealth Chamber of Commerce, National Ambassador for the Institute of Leadership and Management, a Fellow of the National Centre for Entrepreneurs and a Non-Executive Director of two organisations.

He was awarded an OBE for Services to Business Support and Enterprise in 2016.

Professor Monder Ram OBE

Director of the Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME). He is a leading authority on small business and ethnic minority entrepreneurship research and has published widely on the subjects and has extensive experience of working in and acting as a consultant to small and ethnic minority businesses. Monder is a regular keynote speaker at international conferences, and advises the government on the importance and value of ethnic minority businesses through his position on the APPG for BAME Business Owners. He also holds visiting positions at Warwick University and the University of Turku.​