SBAJ welcomes $2b allocation but says more needed
Published:Thursday | March 13, 2025 | 12:12 AMEdmond Campbell/Senior Staff Reporter
President of the Small Business Association of Jamaica (SBAJ) Garnett Reid has welcomed the $2 billion announced by the finance minister to fund start-ups and small businesses but noted that more was needed to assist the sector.
In her opening presentation to the Budget Debate on Tuesday, Fayval Williams, the finance and public service minister, said that $2 billion was allocated in the Budget for the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) to allow it to continue its mandate of facilitating sustainable growth of start-ups and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises.
Reid said he hoped the money allocated to the DBJ for on-lending to the small business sector would be available at affordable interest rates.
The SBAJ boss also noted that many small business operators are facing challenges to provide a litany of business requirements before being able to access these loans.
“You are lending out taxpayers’ money, but at the same time, you want to make it easy for the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The financial institutions are demanding too many instruments for us to get the loans,” he said.
“Even if they ask for a land title and you present the document to them to use as collateral, they still want a whole heap of other things. If we are going to help the sector, we have to go back to the drawing board where the banks are concerned,” Reid stressed.
Williams acknowledged that small businesses have been pushing for equitable access to financing.
“They want equitable access to financing. They are also feeling the burden of high interest rates and have said to me that opening a bank account for their business is difficult. They feel that there is no difference between the requirements for them as opposed to a very large institution,” the finance minister noted.
She signalled that attempts would be made to meet with players in the banking sector to reduce the burden of opening a bank account for MSMEs.
In her contribution to the Budget Debate, Williams also said that the administration would take legislation to Parliament in the 2025-2026 parliamentary year to deal with micro insurance.
“Micro insurance legislation has been talked about, but I give my commitment that micro insurance legislation will be passed in this new fiscal year,” she said.
Williams argued that low-income earners also need affordable insurance products to help them cope with and recover from financial losses.