Unfortunately, many people from ethnic backgrounds are 'pushed' to start up businesses because they feel they cannot "nd work elsewhere due to racist experiences.

The Institute of Minority Entrepreneurship at DIT began a start your own business course for people from minority backgrounds last Monday, 5 February, with such issues very much to the fore.

"Anecdotally, it would seem that many people are starting in business because they've been rejected elsewhere due to their background or race, " says Dr Tom Cooney of the institute. "Starting a business is dif"cult enough without coming in at it from a low. Individual development is needed in these instances as much as business development and the traditional business start-up courses mightn't be suitable for an ethnic minority entrepreneur in this position."

Even when a business is up and running it can grind to halt because of racism. Larry Ovie is a Nigerian pastor based in Galway who owns a successful cleaning company. He has decided to move into a new area of business because of racist behaviour towards himself and his staff.

"I've been doing this for four years and at one time I had about 32 people working for me, " he says. "But I'm thinking of moving to another area by the end of the month. I have mostly Africans and Slovakians working for me and they would get abused. I did like the work, but suddenly I was being called all sorts of names and it was very dif"cult. Every day I get racism and the more I receive it the more depressed I become. I feel like we weren't getting certain jobs due to race and I would often come out to "nd my van or my jeep covered in eggs."

There is plenty of evidence that many ethnic businesspeople who deal with the wider Irish community feel the need to hire a white Irish front-person to answer phones and take bookings. Chinedu Onyelejem of Metro Eireann says distrust can permeate even banking institutions when it comes to people seeking loans.

"They need to be more open-minded.

There's still an element of prejudice there.

People can be distrustful and wonder what ethnic minorities are 'really' up to, " he says.

This gulf of understanding needs to be bridged. More business interaction is required rather than less.

"The "rst time you do business with someone you might be doing it with a Nigerian or a Latvian, " says Ken Germaine of the Base Enterprise Centre. "But the second or third time you do business with someone you are doing it with an individual. Remember business should only have one colour . . . green!"

Larry Ovie has not given up. He plans to start an import-export business, and he is very active in the Nigerian chamber of commerce.

"I'm trying to encourage Irish companies to do business with Nigerians, here and in Nigeria, " he says. "It would be very important that we encourage Irish people to accept the immigrants who are here and that we encourage all people who are trying to contribute to society.

Otherwise everyone will go to their own shelf."