DBJ Product launch for #CEF, #VTA and #IGNITE

Minister of Finance Dr. Peter Phillips launched a new project and re-launch two others aimed at Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises on October 21, 2015 at the Knutsford Court Hotel.

The Development Bank of Jamaica will administer all three projects that are designed to give MSMEs financial and business capacity support. The Innovation Grant from New Ideas to Entrepreneurship (IGNITE) will fund promising new business ideas, the Credit Enhancement Facility (CEF) offers partial guarantees to lenders so MSMEs can get financing, and the Voucher for Technical Assistance (VTA) gives entrepreneurs access to technical services. The CEF and the VTA are existing programmes that have been improved.

These programmes are intended to help businesses overcome the main obstacles of growth in this market. These have been identified as access to affordable capital and lack of technical capacity. The DBJ is aggressively addressing these issues and it has assumed a robust role in advancing the Government’s growth agenda.
More recently, the Bank’s strategy has evolved into being a catalyst for economic growth and development while building an ecosystem that is user friendly for business and offers support in key areas. “We are doing this in a deliberate and targeted way,” says Managing Directory Milverton Reynolds. “We are offering incentives to business, including a legal framework. We are showing Approved Financial Institutions how to respond to small business, and we see success from our collaboration,” he explained.

The IGNITE project is DBJ’s newest option for start-ups, supporting their development and commercialization of their innovations. The CEF addresses the recurring challenge of inadequate collateral for many businesses in Jamaica. The VTA helps MSMEs build capacity so they can expand and improve their access to loan financing.

The DBJ’s General Manager of Strategic Services Division Claudine Tracey will present the products to key business leaders, entrepreneurs and other business support institutions.