[www.inewsguyana.com] – This is one of the initiatives that is being funded by the GRIF which is part of the Norwegian payment to Guyana for environmental services.
In addition to micro and small businesses, this initiative will target low carbon initiatives and vulnerable groups. It will come in the forms of grant and loans, with the latter carrying a less than six percent interest rate.
The project entitled Micro and Small Enterprise (MSE) Development and Building Alternative Livelihood for Vulnerable Groups is a collaborative effort of the Government through the Ministry of Tourism Industry and Commerce and the Inter American Development Bank (IDB).
MSE specialist from the small business bureau Manoharan Kamaleson outlined the criterion for support under the initiative.
The areas targeted cut across 11 sectors with the majority conforming to priorities under Guyana’s revolutionary Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS). Among them are fruit and vegetable farming, processing, aquaculture, eco tourism, sustainable forestry and wood processing, business processing and outsourcing and bio-ethanol.
The Small Business Bureau (SBB) within the Ministry will be the agency executing the US$10M project. The funding was made possible through the Guyana/Norway forest carbon partnership agreement.
An initial tranche of US$5M will be released from the Guyana Redd Investment Fund (GRIF) during the first two years, and it is expected that an approximate 2,200 jobs will be sustained.
Loans can be accessed at the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI), Republic Bank and the Institute for Private Enterprise Development (IPED) through an interest subsidy and support for a portion of the collateral required.
