A second commercial bank has signed on to the Low Carbon Micro and Small Enterprise Develop-ment Project (LCMSEDP) being administered from within the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, paving the way for significantly enhanced access to lending for medium and small enterprises registered with the project.
Derrick Cummings, Chief Executive Officer of the Small Business Bureau (SBB), the body established under the 2004 Small Business Act and which administers the project told Stabroek Business in an interview earlier this week that Republic Bank is now on board. That entity has joined the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) as local banking institutions that will offer loans to eligible business ventures under the project’s collateral guarantee umbrella. Under this arrangement, the SBB will guarantee up to 40 per cent of the collateral requirements of the commercial banks, up to a maximum of $12 million for loans. “What this means is that our uptake will now significantly increase in terms of the mutual guarantee and interest subsidy aspects of the project,” Cummings told Stabroek Business.
Meanwhile, according to Cummings, of the 30 projects referred to GBTI for possible lending, so far five are expected to secure loan approvals shortly. “The startup of the process has not been without its challenges. In some cases there have been issues with persons producing the relevant documentation in order to satisfy the