Beneficiaries of the grant component of the Norway-funded Guyana Redd+ Investment Fund (GRIF) for Micro and Small Enterprise Development (MSED) being executed by the state-run Small Business Bureau have (SBB) received grants totalling almost US$100,000 to finance small and micro enterprise initiatives in more than 10 sectors, the Stabroek Business has been informed.
While detailed information is still to be provided on the critical monitoring aspect of the project designed to determine the effectiveness of on-the-ground implementation, recent statistics provided by the SBB indicate that up to May 13 this year a total of US$173,357 in grants had been formally approved for 121 applicants though only US$99,778 had actually been disbursed.
The Bureau says that almost all of the applicants for grant support received first tranches at a presentation ceremony hosted by the previous administration in January and that the Bureau was awaiting satisfactory information from the remaining applicants on fund-use plans before further disbursements are effected.
Stabroek Business understands that a further 30 grant applications are yet to secure the attention of the Grant Committee. These are to be subjected to critical scrutiny based on business plans submitted by applicants. So far, 43 grants have been disbursed in the fruits and vegetables farming and agro-processing sector, 20 in the art and craft sector and a further 17 for low carbon agriculture.
Under the Project’s Credit Guarantee Scheme which allows the Bureau to provide applicants for commercial bank loans with credit guarantees a total of US$602,978 in loans have already been disbursed by three financial institutions to 23 applicants. Eleven loans totalling US$142,203 have so far been approved by Republic Bank while the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) has approved 6 loans totalling US$340,920. Six loans totaling US119,855 have been approved based on applications under the Project by the Institute of Private Enterprise Development. (IPED).
Stabroek Business understands that since the loans disbursed have been satisfactorily serviced so far there has been no need to activate the guarantees provided by the Bureau.
A further 20 applications for commercial bank loans have been passed to the Bureau for its ‘no-objection.’ The total value of pending loan applications is US$608,140.
The Bureau says it anticipates that around 80 loans will be disbursed by the end of the first phase of the project.
Meanwhile the Bureau says that under the Business Development Services component of the Project a total of 969 persons have benefited from training in a range of areas including business planning (549), market research (121) record-keeping and financial management (40), and packaging and labelling for international markets (31).
