Acting Kinaway Chamber of Commerce chief executive Donald Betts might be just warming the chair until the organisation finds a new First Nations person to take the reins, but he's getting on with business.

The former US Kansas State Senator joined Kinaway, based in Victoria, a year ago as the acting deputy chief executive. Within two weeks, he was elevated to the top job after the chief executive left.

One of his first tasks was to stamp out the unfair practice of "black cladding".

Black cladding is when a company uses a First Nations person as a figurehead to secure lucrative, taxpayer-funded contracts under the federal government's Indigenous Procurement Policy (IPP).

Under the IPP an Aboriginal business is defined as a business with at least 51 per cent Indigenous ownership.

"I'm not here for a long time, I'm here for a good time to make things significantly better," Betts told the National Indigenous Times.

"We have about 60-70 businesses waiting to be certified through Kinaway but the board will not move unless all the criteria is met. Kinaway is probably the most difficult organisation to get certification out of all of Australia.

"We just don't certify anyone; we don't care how much money you want to bring to the table."

The Melbourne-based chamber provides business support and advice to Victorian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and helps improve the visibility and networks of First Nations businesses, strengthening relationships and creating opportunities.

Betts is driven to help Victorian First Nations businesses and Indigenous communities around the globe to be self-governing, independent, and growing.

The corporate lawyer, who is the managing principal of Betts Law Company is also determined to beef-up Kinaway's membership and oversee the growth of the company. "We opened up the Global Alliance – Friends of Kinaway – because I found if you want to grow, you can't grow within your own little hub," he says.

"We brought in different chambers of commerce – we brought in the Sri Lankan Chamber, the Finnish Chamber, the Italian Chamber and next week we will be signing an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Canadian Consulate General's Office, so now the door is open.

"Also, on the back of that, we took the largest First Nations delegations in the history of Australia to the Midwest of America.

"Not only the first time a delegation from Australia has gone to the Midwest but the first time more than 40 businesses have gone anywhere outside of Australia to do trade and businesses."

Betts says the biggest issue facing new First Nations businesses is access to capital.

He says Kinaway would do everything within its powers to assist Indigenous companies to participate not only in the national economy but to compete in international markets.

"We talk to them about the programs offered by the IBA (Indigenous Business Australia)," he says. "If they're in the construction space, one of our corporate partners, ANZ, is always available.

"There was this one story where a woman made about 300-400 candles, but the selling part was hard.

"So our operations manager rang one of our corporate partners and said: 'Look, I have a member with 400 candles she can't get sold' and the corporate partner said: 'We will take all 400 and we will put in another pre-order for another 400 candles next year.'

"It's all about advocacy. We are here to work for them."