KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC) Virtual Biz Zone is tackling one of the biggest difficulties entrepreneurs face in their business, which is financing. The agency is hosting a three-week Access to Finance Series in partnership with financial institutions. The first in the series was held on Tuesday, February 8, 2022 under the theme “Financing your way to recovery”.
Mr. Garth Alleyne, SME Relationship Manager at Jamaica Money Market Brokers (JMMB) presented the first webinar which detailed their offerings specific to the Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (MSME) sector.
According to Mr. Alleyne, “We do realise that the majority of business owners in Jamaica are SME clients and therefore we wanted to put together a suite of products and services for them. Unfortunately, MSMEs do not have the benefit of large financial backing and so JMMB has decided to develop programmes and provide platforms that will help clients go from point A to B.”
The JMMB has a SME Resource Centre that is a dedicated department to the success and upward mobility of MSMEs. The Centre caters to four (4) specific needs of the entrepreneur and these are: advanced needs, delivery, interest and funding. Under funding, Alleyne described how this programme provides insight and assistance to entrepreneurs seeking financial aid. The department assists with preparing clients for grants, debt financing, angel investors, private equity and Initial Public Offering (IPO).
Alleyne informed the participants in the webinar that one of the most important steps for a small business is to open a business bank account. He said, “The reason for this is when providing financial statements, if there is an off chance of not having them, the bank statements help us to gauge the revenue, turnover and profits that can be handed over to relevant departments to help access funds.” Entrepreneurs can acquire these opportunities for development and financing as the SME Resource Centre is both a physical centre and a service that can be accessed by calling JMMB.
The JBDC Virtual Biz Zone webinars are geared toward stimulating entrepreneurs within the MSMEs through knowledge sharing. These sessions are held every Tuesday at 10:00am via Zoom and interested persons are encouraged to join by registering at www.jbdc.net. The sessions can also be watched on JBDC’s YouTube channel, JBDC Jamaica.
