by Bennette Roach
On October 8, 2012, Premier the Hon. Reuben T Meade proudly declared the launch of a long awaited “Business Financing Facility” (BFF) which will be operated by the MDC in collaboration with the SPCCU.
After officially launching the BFF which followed an overview of a Financial Management workshop (FMW) by Mrs. Teresa Silcott, and an overview of the BFF by Mrs. Angela Greenaway, the Premier in a short feature address for the dual occasion told the gathering that the BFF will make available small business loans to prospective and ‘struggling’ entrepreneurs.
He said it is: “…a pleasure to be here speaking after the launch of this facility many many years after it should’ve been launched we have been talking about this facility since the days of Dr. Lewis when he was Chief Minister ,” taking this back to 2006 and even further.
Mrs. Teresa Silcott
He explained the project as, “…a collaboration where projects are identified, the MDC will be responsible in determining whether or not it fits within the particular criteria, and then the funding is being disbursed and repaid through the SPCCU.”
The Premier attempted to be candid in that address. He went on to describe the problems as he saw them. “Government talks a lot about engaging with the private sector. Part of the difficulties of the private sector in Montserrat; 1. It is small; 2. Financing is difficult; and of course Government is very, very difficult and providing the support,” he concluded.
He referred to the workshop facilitator as having said that “…government is not very sensitive to responding to the needs of the private sector.”
“As a consequence,” he said, We will be handing over to the MDC the facility of a one-stop shop.”
Mrs. Greenaway told the would be participants at the workshop that the project will be via loans (eventually revealed to be at 5% interest) in up to two tranches of $40,000.00 each, up to five years, from resources that “we have obtained from department for international development (DFID) and these resources will be provided through the St. Patrick’s cooperative credit union.”
She explained, “…we know that there are a lot of very good business ideas in Montserrat that may just need that little extra amount of financing to launch it in a big way, and sometimes your ability to access that financing is just not there and that really is the basis of the development of the business financing facility…”
Mrs. Agatha Aspin the business coordinator chaired the proceedings which she had informed was a two fold exercise. “We have the start of the financial exercise and the official launch of the MDC financing program the business financing facility,”as she further explained, “the business sector of Montserrat has been receiving of training and other business development initiatives from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) through its CTCS program.”
She noted that CDB had empaneled a cadre of persons capable of facilitating the training exercises. She explained therefore, that the private sector around the region had no longer any need to bring trainers to conduct training in any one island. She said that was done is to train those persons within the island to do what CDB asks of them.
She then announced the workshops facilitator. “So this morning we are fortunate in that we have our own facilitator Mrs. Teresa Silcott who will be conducting the training for us over the ten nights,” pointing out that Mrs. Silcott is a qualified accountant, who had previously gone to CDB for the requisite CDB training.
Mrs. Silcott gave a brief overview of the course and her expectations. “At the end of the workshop, participants would be able to understand the fundamental component of business, how a business operates. They would understand the regulatory requirements for setting up and reporting on business; understand and interpret simple income and balance sheet statements; use simple variants analysis to access changes in business operation, look at budgets, and break even …”
“However,” she said, “I would like to say that beyond the class-work, I would like the participants to develop relationships with each other as business people…”
Prior to his address, the Premier, accompanied by the MDC new Executive Chairman, Mr. John Ryan, delivered instruments to Mr. Denzil West, president of the SPCCU.
Thirty eight (38) persons registered for the management course but at the end during a graduation ceremony it was revealed that only twenty seven stayed the distance, covering October 8 -24. They were presented with certificates at the closing ceremony Wednesday night.
Both the training workshop and the opening ceremony which included the BFF launch were held at the Grand View Bed & Breakfast facility.
