ABOUT NOBEEP
Building an Economy Where Black Entrepreneurship Can Thrive in Northern Ontario
The Northern Ontario Black Economic Empowerment Program (NOBEEP) exists to strengthen Black entrepreneurship, business ownership, and economic participation across Northern Ontario.
We believe that when entrepreneurs have equitable access to knowledge, networks, capital, opportunities, and culturally relevant support, they are better positioned to build sustainable businesses, create employment, generate wealth, strengthen communities, and contribute to the economic prosperity of the North.
NOBEEP is working toward a Northern Ontario where Black entrepreneurs are not simply participants in the economy, but are connected, visible, supported, invested in, and recognized as an important part of the region’s economic future.
Our Story
NOBEEP began with the recognition of both an opportunity and a gap.
Across Northern Ontario, Black entrepreneurs, professionals, and community members were building businesses, developing ideas, and contributing to their communities. Yet the entrepreneurship ecosystem did not always reflect their experiences, networks, cultural realities, or the unique challenges of building a business in Northern Ontario.
Founded by Dr. Chantae Ucaeci Bekai and Chamirai Charles Nyabeze through the Afro-Heritage Association of Sudbury in December 2020, NOBEEP grew from a community-driven vision to create stronger pathways for Black entrepreneurship, business ownership, and economic participation across the North.
From the beginning, the idea was bigger than creating another business support program.
It was about asking a larger question:
What would it take to build an entrepreneurship ecosystem in Northern Ontario where Black entrepreneurs have the relationships, resources, opportunities, and institutional connections they need to succeed?
That question became the foundation of NOBEEP.
In 2021, federal support was secured for the creation and development of NOBEEP, laying the groundwork for a regional initiative dedicated to Black entrepreneurship. In March 2022, the Government of Canada announced a $1.15 million investment through FedNor to establish NOBEEP, and later that year NOBEEP opened its centre in downtown Sudbury.
From its beginnings in Greater Sudbury, NOBEEP was built with a regional vision: to connect entrepreneurs, communities, institutions, resources, and opportunities across Northern Ontario.
Why NOBEEP?
Entrepreneurship does not happen in isolation.
Behind successful businesses are ecosystems of relationships—other entrepreneurs, mentors, financial institutions, customers, professional services, governments, economic development organizations, educational institutions, investors, and community networks.
For Black entrepreneurs in Northern Ontario, access to these networks, resources, and opportunities can be uneven.
Northern Ontario also presents a unique entrepreneurial environment. Communities are spread across an enormous geography. Local economies and industries differ considerably, and access to specialized business services, financing, mentorship, markets, and professional networks can vary depending on where an entrepreneur is located.
When these geographic realities intersect with gaps in representation, culturally relevant services, access to networks, financing, and other systemic barriers, promising entrepreneurs can find themselves navigating the business ecosystem without the connections and support they need.
NOBEEP was created to help close those gaps.
Our role is not simply to help someone start a business. It is to strengthen the environment surrounding Black entrepreneurship so that more entrepreneurs can start, survive, grow, connect, and succeed.
Who We Serve
NOBEEP serves Black entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, business owners, and Black-led enterprises across Northern Ontario, recognizing that every entrepreneur may be at a different stage of their journey.
This includes people exploring entrepreneurship for the first time, entrepreneurs developing new ideas, startups establishing themselves, and existing business owners seeking to strengthen, expand, or reposition their businesses.
But supporting entrepreneurs also requires working with the institutions and systems around them.
For that reason, NOBEEP works with organizations and partners throughout the broader economic development ecosystem to create stronger pathways between Black entrepreneurs and the resources, expertise, financing, markets, networks, and opportunities available throughout Northern Ontario and beyond.
Where We Serve
Northern Ontario Is Our Region
NOBEEP is headquartered in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, and serves communities across Northern Ontario.
Our mandate reflects the vast geography and diversity of the North, including communities throughout Northeastern and Northwestern Ontario.
Northern Ontario includes larger urban centres as well as smaller, rural, remote, and Northern communities. Entrepreneurs across this geography can experience very different levels of access to business services, professional networks, financing, mentorship, and markets.
NOBEEP therefore takes a regional approach.
We work to connect entrepreneurs across communities while developing relationships with organizations throughout the North, helping bridge geographic, cultural, and systemic gaps within the entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Our goal is to help ensure that an entrepreneur’s location does not determine the strength of their connection to business knowledge, networks, resources, and opportunities.
By strengthening these connections, NOBEEP is helping build a more connected Northern Ontario Black business ecosystem.
What We Do
NOBEEP works at the intersection of entrepreneurship, economic empowerment, community development, and ecosystem building.
Our work focuses on helping entrepreneurs navigate the journey from idea to sustainable enterprise while strengthening the networks and systems surrounding them.
This can include connecting entrepreneurs to:
Business knowledge and advisory support.
Entrepreneurial education and capacity building.
Mentorship and professional expertise.
Business and community networks.
Financing and funding pathways.
Market and procurement opportunities.
Business resources and professional services.
Partnerships, referrals, and connections to the broader entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Just as importantly, NOBEEP works to understand where gaps continue to exist.
What are Black entrepreneurs experiencing across Northern Ontario?
Where are entrepreneurs struggling to access existing resources?
Which relationships and connections are missing?
Where are there barriers to capital, markets, mentorship, or professional networks?
And where can governments, institutions, communities, and businesses work differently—or work together—to create better outcomes?
Understanding these questions allows NOBEEP to develop culturally relevant responses while contributing to a stronger entrepreneurship ecosystem for Northern Ontario.
More Than Business Support
NOBEEP’s long-term purpose extends beyond individual programs, workshops, or services.
We see NOBEEP as part of the economic infrastructure needed to build a stronger and more inclusive Northern Ontario.
That means connecting entrepreneurs to institutions—and institutions to entrepreneurs.
NOBEEP seeks to build relationships across the economic development ecosystem, including governments, municipalities, economic development organizations, financial institutions, educational institutions, chambers and business organizations, community organizations, professional networks, corporations, and other partners that can contribute to entrepreneurial success.
Through these relationships, NOBEEP works to make existing resources more accessible while identifying opportunities for new programs, partnerships, investment, research, procurement, and collaboration.
The objective is not to create a separate economy.
It is to ensure that Black entrepreneurs can participate fully in Northern Ontario’s economy and that Northern Ontario benefits from their ideas, businesses, investment, employment, innovation, and leadership.
Building the Evidence
Effective economic empowerment requires more than programs. It requires understanding.
An important part of NOBEEP’s work is contributing to a clearer picture of Black entrepreneurship in Northern Ontario—the businesses that exist, the entrepreneurs who are emerging, the barriers they encounter, the opportunities available to them, and the resources required for sustainable growth.
Listening directly to entrepreneurs and communities helps ensure that programs, partnerships, and policy conversations respond to real experiences rather than assumptions.
Building this knowledge can also help governments, institutions, funders, financial organizations, and economic development partners make better-informed decisions about how they engage with and invest in Black entrepreneurship throughout Northern Ontario.
In this way, NOBEEP can serve not only as a provider of support, but also as a connector, convener, advocate, and source of knowledge about Black entrepreneurship in the North.
Our Impact
For NOBEEP, impact is ultimately about creating the conditions for entrepreneurs and businesses to move forward.
We seek to contribute to:
More Black-owned businesses starting, surviving, and growing.
Stronger connections between Black entrepreneurs and Northern Ontario’s business-support ecosystem.
Greater access to business knowledge, mentorship, financing, markets, procurement, and other economic opportunities.
Increased visibility and representation of Black entrepreneurs and business owners within Northern Ontario’s economy.
Stronger relationships among Black entrepreneurs across Northern communities.
Greater collaboration between communities, governments, institutions, businesses, and the private sector.
Better understanding of the needs, experiences, and economic contributions of Black entrepreneurs in Northern Ontario.
More opportunities for Black-owned businesses to create employment, generate wealth, innovate, and contribute to their communities.
As NOBEEP continues to grow, measuring and communicating these outcomes will be an important part of demonstrating both the impact and the economic potential of Black entrepreneurship in Northern Ontario.
[NOBEEP verified impact statistics can be inserted here: entrepreneurs supported, businesses assisted, communities reached, partnerships established, financing facilitated, workshops delivered, jobs created or supported, and other measurable outcomes.]
Our Vision
NOBEEP is working toward something larger than the success of any single program.
We envision an inclusive, connected, and prosperous Northern Ontario economy where Black entrepreneurs have equitable opportunities to build businesses, create employment, generate wealth, innovate, invest in their communities, and participate fully in the economic development of the region.
Our long-term ambition is to help build lasting infrastructure for Black entrepreneurship in Northern Ontario.
An ecosystem where an aspiring entrepreneur can find guidance.
Where an early-stage founder can find mentorship.
Where a growing business can find expertise, capital, customers, and opportunity.
Where entrepreneurs across Northern communities can find one another.
Where institutions know how to reach, engage, and support Black businesses.
Where successful entrepreneurs can become mentors, employers, investors, and community leaders.
And where the growth of Black-owned businesses is recognized as part of the growth and prosperity of Northern Ontario itself.
The Bigger Picture
NOBEEP began in response to a gap in the entrepreneurship ecosystem, but its future is about possibility, participation, and prosperity.
Every successful entrepreneur has the potential to create an impact that extends far beyond one business.
A business can create a job.
A job can strengthen a household.
A growing company can purchase from local suppliers and create opportunities for other entrepreneurs.
A successful founder can become a mentor, employer, investor, community leader, or inspiration for the next generation.
A stronger network of entrepreneurs can attract investment, create new partnerships, open new markets, and contribute to stronger communities.
Multiply that across Northern Ontario, and entrepreneurship becomes a powerful vehicle for economic empowerment, wealth creation, community development, and regional economic growth.
That is the bigger picture behind NOBEEP.
We are helping build an ecosystem where Black entrepreneurship can thrive—and where that success contributes to a stronger, more inclusive, and more prosperous Northern Ontario for everyone.
Organizational Information
The Northern Ontario Black Economic Empowerment Program (NOBEEP) is managed through the Afro-Heritage Association of Sudbury (AHAS) and was established to advance Black entrepreneurship and economic empowerment throughout Northern Ontario.
Founded by: Dr. Chantae Ucaeci Bekai and Chamirai Charles Nyabeze
Established: December 2020
Federal registration: December 2020
Corporation: 12580748 Canada Association
Headquarters: Greater Sudbury, Ontario
Region served: Northern Ontario, Canada
