The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

The Small Business Development Centre (SBDC) has received $5.7m in total financing requests from the two Dorian-devastated islands in the storm’s aftermath, a senior advisor said yesterday.

Winston Rolle, also a former Bahamas Chamber of Commerce president, said the centre has received requests for $1.7m from Abaco-based entrepreneurs and $4m from Grand Bahama-based businesses, and has already begun to process the necessary approvals.

He added that the centre has also opened an office in the Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation’s (BAIC) Abaco premises as of this week, and its staff have been seeing ten to 15 entrepreneurs per day - along with the 25 already in the system - who are eager to obtain financing to restore their ventures in Dorian’s wake.

Highlighting the demand for services from an entity created by the government, working with the University of The Bahamas and the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC), to solve the problems micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) have endured in accessing capital, Mr Rolle said the centre to-date has secured access to $2.5m for 78 companies.

Some $1.7m of this sum is loans, and another $800,000 grants. Mr Rolle explained that the centre did not lend money itself, but instead helped entrepreneurs qualify for financing and then provided a guarantee to underwrite it with either the commercial banks or Bahamas Development Bank.

Arguing that the centre’s involvement has already improved MSME access to financing, particularly through its main commercial banking partner, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Mr Rolle said the bank’s small business development loan facility had already been “exhausted” within eight months with the second cycle set to be similarly depleted before the end of the year.

He added that three businesses in Long Island were approved for funding last Friday by the centre’s credit committee out of 40 firms registered. The centre’s ratio of advisors to applicants currently stands at one for every 75.

Mr Rolle said: “We want to get MSMEs into the formal economy because those that are not are also not paying taxes and are not contributing to the development of the country.

“Ninety percent of all registered companies are considered MSMEs. They employ 47 percent of the people but have less than 25 percent of the turnover. We took a group to an expo in Atlanta for them to look at opportunities to export their goods throughout the United States.

“We are also putting in plans to participate at Dubai 2020, where the SBDC will have storefront at Dubai 2020 for a whole month with the expectation to showcase Bahamian products and services in Dubai in 2020.”

Mr Rolle said the centre is meeting and creating linkages with international firms investing in The Bahamas so MSMEs can take advantage of the opportunities provided by the likes of Disney and Carnival Cruise Lines. The government’s Heads of Agreement with such investors stipulate that they are “supposed to engage local companies” in a number of areas.