MSME Alliance welcomes DBJ's $10b business recovery programme

 

President of the Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSME) Alliance, Antoinette Hamilton, has given the thumbs up to the $10 billion M5 Business Recovery Programme to support businesses that have been disrupted by the passage of Hurricane Melissa.

 

Under the programme, launched by the Development Bank of Jamaica, businesses in agriculture, manufacturing, distribution and tourism that qualify for assistance can gain access to between $20 million and $50 million from DBJ partner institutions, approved financial institutions and micro-finance institutions. 

 

The DBJ says its focus will be on refinancing, rebooting and rebuilding. The announcement of the programme last week came a day after Ms. Hamilton indicated that her members were growing impatient with the delay in receiving promised assistance from the government. 

 

Speaking Tuesday on the Morning Agenda on Power 106, Mrs. Hamilton was pleased with the reboot aspect of the programme, which will provide cash to support day-to-day operations. 

 

She urged members of the MSME Alliance to act quickly in applying for the assistance that suits their needs. 

 

"We are happy that we have heard very good programmes coming out from DBJ, and in particular the reboot aspect of the programme, which is a working capital support aspect that wasn't available prior, and that in itself provides all small businesses the opportunity to access up to $5 million over 10 years at 8% which is very good.

 

"What that means is that persons who may need cash to support payroll, to purchase inventory or even to just provide some cash support because some may face some challenges with collection from their customers, that is a facility that can be accessed. Overall, we are happy with the package and I think MSMEs now just have to put themselves in our position to qualify. There is no time for excuses," she stressed.