BUSINESSMAN Hans P Garoute (left) has received Haiti’s inaugural Digicel Entrepreneur of the Year award, which is being co-ordinated by former Ernst Young partner Enda Kelly (right).

Mr Garoute is the founder of Indepco, which has helped to create more than 12,000 jobs across a network of more than 600 small sewing businesses.

At the age of 15, Mr Garoute fled Haiti for the US after his father was arrested by Papa Doc Duvalier’s Tonton Macoute militia.

He returned to his homeland in 1988 and founded Indepco in 1992.