We had an outstanding year
– Yesu Persaud
The 2010 Annual Report of the Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED) reflects a 13.8% increase in the value of loans disbursed to its clients last year over the previous year, underscoring the entity’s long-established role as the country’s leading small business lending agency.
According to the report, its net loan portfolio increased from $1.259 billion in 2009 to $1.397 billion last year while the total number of enterprises serviced increased marginally from 4,137 in 2009 to 4,153 last year. Last year, IPED approved 5,449 loans to small and micro businesses, less than the 5,723 approved in 2009. However, the total value of the loans approved last year surpassed that of the previous year, increasing from $1.746 billion to $1.987 billion.
In his assessment of the institute’s performance in 2010, Chairman of the Board of Directors Dr Yesu Persaud said it had been an “outstanding” year. “Our entrepreneurs would have confronted many challenges but were successful in coming up with strategies to overcome those hurdles,” Persaud said. IPED’s 2,345 micro clients represent 56 per cent of its client base while its 1,808 small clients comprise 44 per cent of its overall clients. The value of small loans disbursed by IPED in 2010 was $1.146 billion, while micro loans totalled $300 million.
Established in 1986, IPED enters its 25th year with what is widely regarded as an impressive record of service to and support for the small business sector. During the period the institute disbursed 78,134 loans with a total value of $16.7 billion, supporting more than 30,000 enterprises in the process. In his report the IPED chairman made particular note of the fact that 32 per cent of the beneficiaries had been women while joint loans had accounted for 38 per cent of the total number disbursed. “The majority of women clients are single parents. IPED provided the opportunity for its clients to be self-employed, generating their own income so that they can be self-sustaining members of society,” Dr Persaud said.
Since its inception IPED loans have heavily favoured small and micro businesses in the distribution sector. Last year the institute continued that trend, disbursing 1,889 loans to that sector.
The 2010 Annual Report of the Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED) reflects a 13.8% increase in the value of loans disbursed to its clients last year over the previous year, underscoring the entity’s long-established role as the country’s leading small business lending agency.
According to the report, its net loan portfolio increased from $1.259 billion in 2009 to $1.397 billion last year while the total number of enterprises serviced increased marginally from 4,137 in 2009 to 4,153 last year. Last year, IPED approved 5,449 loans to small and micro businesses, less than the 5,723 approved in 2009. However, the total value of the loans approved last year surpassed that of the previous year, increasing from $1.746 billion to $1.987 billion.
In his assessment of the institute’s performance in 2010, Chairman of the Board of Directors Dr Yesu Persaud said it had been an “outstanding” year. “Our entrepreneurs would have confronted many challenges but were successful in coming up with strategies to overcome those hurdles,” Persaud said. IPED’s 2,345 micro clients represent 56 per cent of its client base while its 1,808 small clients comprise 44 per cent of its overall clients. The value of small loans disbursed by IPED in 2010 was $1.146 billion, while micro loans totalled $300 million.
Established in 1986, IPED enters its 25th year with what is widely regarded as an impressive record of service to and support for the small business sector. During the period the institute disbursed 78,134 loans with a total value of $16.7 billion, supporting more than 30,000 enterprises in the process. In his report the IPED chairman made particular note of the fact that 32 per cent of the beneficiaries had been women while joint loans had accounted for 38 per cent of the total number disbursed. “The majority of women clients are single parents. IPED provided the opportunity for its clients to be self-employed, generating their own income so that they can be self-sustaining members of society,” Dr Persaud said.
Since its inception IPED loans have heavily favoured small and micro businesses in the distribution sector. Last year the institute continued that trend, disbursing 1,889 loans to that sector.
Last year, the rice industry secured 1,432 IPED loans, the second highest amount for the period while livestock secured 1,154 loans. Other industries that benefited from IPED loans in 2010 include transportation services, manufacturing, fishing, forestry, and other crops.
Meanwhile, in his assessment of IPED’s 2010 performance the chairman also drew attention to the role of IPED’s Entrepreneurial Development Centre (EDC) which, he says, plays an important role in providing business skills training, technology transfer and market facilitation. Dr Persaud said that last year the EDC provided training courses to several of its clients through it Diploma in Small Business Management. Additionally, the institute had contributed to the broader national training regime for the corporate community through the provision of an academic programme in collaboration with the Institute of Commercial Management (ICM). Additionally, during 2010, the EDC implemented an agreement with the Institute of Migration to provide business development services to involuntary re-migrants. More than 50 persons have already participated in that programme.
Meanwhile the EDC has also been appointed local agents for the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC) to facilitate its FINPYME Export Plus programme which seeks to promote technical assistance to SMEs in order to render them export ready.
In the area of technology transfer IPED last year collaborated with the Inter-American Development Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund for the demonstration of an integrated farming model for poor rural farmers. The full and effective implementation of the model is expected to contribute to “increases in farm productivity and a reduction of poverty amongst small rural farmers in all ten administrative regions of Guyana,” the IPED report said.
Among the other “strategic accomplishments” of the entity listed in its 2010 report are the securing of a management contract of the Enterprise Development Fund for the disbursement of $220 million in grants and loans to micro and small agricultural enterprises under the Rural Enterprise and Agricultural Development and the securing of technical assistance from the Inter American Development Bank’s Emergency Liquidation Fund to prepare a Disaster Risk Management and Emergency Preparedness Plan.
