First Nations entrepreneur and proud Nyikina man Wayne Bergmann is stepping down from the board of the Kimberley Land Council to focus on creating economic empowerment for Traditional Owners.

Mr Bergmann joined the Kimberley Land Council (KLC) 23 years ago and became one of the youngest CEOs of a native title representative body when he was elected executive director in 2001.

The director and co-owner of the National Indigenous Times said some of his proudest achievements on the KLC were spearheading Aboriginal negotiations to return large chunks of the Kimberley to native title.

"The agreements pushed the envelope to increase Aboriginal participation in business and employment. The reality is that despite these agreements the advancement of Aboriginal participation is poor," he said.

"I'm going to move into focusing on making companies that operate within the Native Title Groups accountable to deliver on Indigenous business and employment outcomes."

The Indigenous Professor of Practice at the University of New South Wales said he is passionate about changing the economic well-being of First Nations people by having them participate in the economy. But Mr Bergmann believes not all Indigenous businesses get to compete in the economy because there is systemic discrimination from parts of the industry when it comes to Aboriginal people participating in this space.

"There are clauses in agreements that say companies have to use their best endeavours to do everything possible to get contracts and jobs and it doesn't happen," he said.

"From a cultural point of view, we have allowed mining companies to operate on our traditional lands, in return we expect to be paid compensation and to participate in those projects through business opportunities and jobs.

"Now if mining companies are giving those contracts and jobs to other people what is happening is we as Traditional Owners are getting poorer and poorer in our region. So my argument is the companies aren't earning their social license to operate because they are taking the easy way out and giving contracts to groups and businesses that already have capacity."

The former solicitor and barrister said while it was not physically possible for all First Nations businesses to take up all the opportunities there should be better mechanisms in place to increase the capacity of some of the Indigenous companies.

Mr Bergmann said as First Nations businesses are the biggest employees of Indigenous people, it was critical to nurture and build companies, which would result in greater participation in the economy for Aboriginal people.

"I will be focusing on my Native Title groups in supporting those families in those groups participating and making companies accountable who operate in our determination," he said.

"I think there has to be more accountability on companies to ensure this happens because the consequence of not happening is a question all Australians should be concerned about.

"We will continue to be poor and dependent on the system and therefore we seek more government welfare support.

"Government has to walk with us to enforce companies to increase local content, because we know from the Harvard Business Review studies - the better the First Nations people do, the better the wider community does."