The Small Business Bureau (SBB) disbursed loans to the value of US$1.3M during 2017 and was only required to pay out US$6,000 in bad loans to partner banks.
“That is actually way less than the total fund we have, so, that speaks to the fact that we have done generally good loans,” Gillian Edwards, the Credit Guarantee Fund Manager posited on Tuesday during a radio interview, a release from the Department of Public Information (DPI) has said.
Additionally, the SBB has disbursed $70M in grants to date Edwards pointed out. “Of all the businesses we have disbursed loans to, we have been able to show, from those we visited, in excess of 60 per cent success in terms of them still in operation, we’ve seen growth in revenue and in terms of assets and things like that,” she said.
The SBB’s grant programme provides $300,000 to start-ups and other qualifying applicants. “We have up to October this year to disburse the rest of monies we have in grants,” Edwards said.
According to the CEO of the SBB, Dr Lowell Porter, the Bureau ’s database has more than 9,500 registered clients. In 2018, the SBB will be enhancing its impact evaluation “to measure what we have done to date.”
Meanwhile, it was also noted that the SBB also plans to continue programmes that were successful like the in-school programme. The SBB, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, provided grants to 15 secondary schools for 100 business students.
“It was an effort to give them (the students) the familiarity with becoming entrepreneurs so that when they leave school once they so desire they already have that information, the knowledge and the experience of starting and managing a business,” Research and Marketing Officer, Sharmayne Hedley said.
The SBB says it will also be seeking to introduce more programmes in 2018 that promotes entrepreneurship in Guyana and developing the full capacity of small businesses.
