Georgetown: The Small Business Bureau (SBB) within the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and commerce is announced that they have made tremendous strides in fulfilling their mandate as set out in the Small Business Act No. 2 of 2004.
A first ever Grant Awards & Partnership Ceremony will be held on January 30, 2015 at 9:30 a.m. at the Guyana International Conference Center (GICC) to demonstrate this achievement. The SBB functions as the executing agency of the Act and secretariat of the SBC.
The event marks a significant milestone in Government’s contribution to the Small Business Sector. The Government of Guyana, via the Low Carbon Development Strategy/Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (LCDS/GRIF) facility has made available to the Small Business Bureau, the sum of ten million United States Dollars (US$10,000,000.00) to be utilized over a period of four (4) years for the purpose of funding and comprehensive training of small business entrepreneurs.
The Micro and Small Enterprise (MSE) Development and Building Alternative Livelihoods for Vulnerable Groups Project (launched in October 2013) has been crafted to enable the best utilization of the funds. The project is administered by Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), monitored by Ministry of Finance with oversight by Office of the President, and executed by the SBB. A mutual guarantee fund and training component are disbursed through the Partner Financial Institutions and Partner Training Institutions respectively. The SBB directly administers a grant scheme to deserving recipients.
To date, over nine hundred (900) clients have accessed training and eighteen (18) have benefitted from the low interest (6% per annum) mutual guarantee facility to the tune of over ninety million Guyana dollars (G$90,000,000.00). More than sixty (60) grants of approximately twenty million dollars (G$20,000,000.00) have been approved for disbursement. One hundred and sixty seven (167) jobs has been created/sustained as a result of this intervention.
President Donald Ramotar is expected to deliver the feature address at the Grant Award and Partnership Ceremony.
