Sooner rather than later, a reliable assessment of the impact which the twin factors of the post-March 2 general elections imbroglio and the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic have had on the national mindset and (for the purpose of this editorial) on particular aspects of the country’s economy will have to be forthcoming. We cannot move forward with any sense of sureness unless we first understand the condition in which the country’s economy finds itself. For the moment, even if the evidence of the decline in trading, loss of jobs and the complete displacement of some businesses is already telling a depressing story, we are going to have to wait for ‘the numbers,’ in order to get the bigger picture.
We do not, however, have to wait that long to discern that one of the consequences of the aforementioned twin circumstances that have now been with us for several weeks will be some level (how much we do not know) of slippage in the economy. What could also materialize are heavy losses among an entire generation of small businesses that have emerged over the past ten years or so out of the sweat and sacrifice of ordinary Guyanese.
The situation may not be irretrievable but the signs are there. These past two weeks our sampling of local small businesses, comprising enterprises in areas such as cash crop farming, agro-processing, craft and some of the various other ‘hustles’ that do more than we sometimes think to drive down the destitution levels, suggest that these have been, to varying degrees, considerably derailed by the aforementioned events. Some of them, dependent as they are on day to day turnover, may, by now, have folded completely. That, of course, will have its own ‘knock-on’ socio-economic consequences amongst the owners of those small businesses and their families.
Accurate measurement of the extent of the crisis, at this stage, is, as has already been mentioned, not yet possible though this newspaper’s close interaction with the small business sector and particularly with agro-processors, small farmers and craftsmen and women position, allows it, to essay some kind of informed opinion. Some of these small businesses appear to be facing imminent extinction. Their fragility, in the first place, deriving out of limited trading returns, bases that were fragile in the first place and in some instances the energy-sapping nature of the effort to hold them leaves them vulnerable to falling by the wayside. When you interface with what one might call borderline small and micro businesses for long enough you come to understand the owners’ arrival at that point where heads begin to droop and will starts to wane.
On the other hand the sturdier ones, older, favoured with a stronger market base and better savings profiles, and perhaps blessed with owners with a greater measure of resolve appear more determined to ‘tough it out.’ The reality is that some of our small business owners appear to thrive on hard times. They have grown used to challenging themselves to find a way out of crisis. They survive only because they have long dismissed failure as an option. The reality is, of course, that serious plans for long-term business growth can be built on foundations that are held together by nothing but optimism.
Set against the other compelling distractions that confront us at this time, to some, the loss of much of an entire generation of small and micro businesses across the sectors may appear to be little more than collateral damage. Such a posture would amount to exercises in both hypocrisy and unfathomable betrayal. Do these ventures not, after all, embody the spirit of enterprise and self-reliance that those who rule never fail to demand in their ivory tower exhortations? Are these blood, sweat and tears–driven small businesses not serving the purpose of lifting the self-esteem as much as the economic circumstances of their owners and their families off the floor? Are these ventures, many of which are even now threatened with extinction by circumstances not of their doing, not more than worthwhile options to the wasted and counterproductive lives that we constantly rail against?
Proportionately, there is no sector of Guyana’s economy that has made more significant strides than the small and micro businesses in the agro processing/manufacturing sector in recent years. Working with wafer thin resources including makeshift inventory and ideas generated in the ‘conference rooms’ of their cramped and congested living home spaces they have, in many instances, fought for an earned consumer acceptance in what used to be (and still is, to some extent) a cynical, dismissive market. For all that, initiatives to grow the small business sector (like the creation of the Small Business Bureau) have, in large measure, been given short shrift by the commercial banking sector. Meanwhile, worthwhile avenues through which the state can help solidify these ventures are often derailed by equal measures of mind-boggling bureaucracy and prevarication…like kicking a gift horse in the mouth.
If one notes with some measure of satisfaction the recent announcement that small business clients of the Small Business Bureau will be receiving grants from government to ‘tide them over’ there is no question than that (while one accepts that every little helps) those will not be sufficient to keep those now ‘in trouble’ small businesses afloat. Nor are the ‘after the fact’ reflections on the official sloth, bureaucracy and indifference that have, over the years, retarded the growth of the small business sector and more particularly the agro-processing sector anywhere near satisfactory excuses. In large measure both the state and non-state institutions, including the banking sector, have, to a greater or lesser extent, failed our small businesses. If the corrective process begins today we may yet be able to find a way of at least partially salvaging the situation. It is probably far less likely that the entire situation can now be retrieved.
