Evidence that increasing numbers of unemployed and underemployed Guyanese are seeking out either full time or part time income generating options in the micro and small business sectors would appear to have largely influenced the decision by government to allocate almost G$800 million to a “Small Business Fund” and the operations of the Small Business Bureau, respectively, in the 2024 Budget. This would appear to reflect a growing official acknowledgement that self-employment through the vehicle of the small business is the way to go in pursuit of the goals of both creating income-earning opportunities for the unemployed and steering greater numbers of Guyanese down the path of self-employment in preference to salaried jobs.
The available evidence culled from the establishment of micro businesses (particularly by young, forward-looking Guyanese) across various sectors as well as the significant relatively recent upsurge in the pursuit of Agro processing as a substantive livelihood by a wide cross section of Guyanese, justifies the push to broaden the scope of access to funding for such pursuits. Here, the point should also be made that small business undertakings have also been embraced by significant numbers of young Guyanese, many of whom now run small businesses (mostly modest ones) simultaneous with doing full or part-time jobs in the public and private sectors. Evidence that increasing numbers of young Guyanese, (many of them having already recorded some measure of academic accomplishment, and in some instances, some level of entrepreneurial training), have decided to take the plunge into entrepreneurship, ought to encourage not just the allocation of increased state resources to small businesses by way of budgetary allocations but ensuring that the administering state agencies (The Ministry of Business and the Small Business Bureau are state entities that come to mind) are ‘at one’ with the philosophy (purpose) behind their existence and are adequately equipped to pursue their mandate.
Discourses between this newspaper and small business owners (and aspirants) have yielded assorted ‘sob’ stories about what are sometimes ill-defined ‘hassles’ which they experience in their encounters with state agencies (The Small Business Bureau comes in for frequent mention here) over what, admittedly, are rules and procedures that need to be adhered to. Here the question arises as to whether there is no need for mechanisms to be put in place to minimize what, in several instances, appears to be circumstances of considerable dissonance between the state agency (in this instance the Small Business Bureau) and the aspiring or emerging small business owner. What the 2024 ‘Budget Speech’ provides, is a broad official expression of intent with regard to the allocation of funds to state institutions responsible for small business development. Its challenge lies in the administering mechanisms for ensuring the effective execution of this critical mission.
The feedback that this newspaper has secured from some Small Business owners/aspirants regarding issues that frequently arise in the process of engagement between the SBB and small business owners/aspirants with regard to criteria and procedure-related considerations is, frequently, more than a trifle discouraging. These pursuits can sometimes drive efforts to secure state funding for small business investments into protracted and frustrating ‘blind-alley’ quests for funds allocated by the state specifically for small business development. This, it should be said, has to end without delay if the system put in place for small business growth is to serve its purpose. Complaints targeting institutions established to administer the allocation of resources for small business development focus mostly on what can be described as administrative and procedural ‘blockages’ to the accessing of such funding. These complaints point fingers at what is loosely described as the ‘red tape’ in which access to state funding is ‘tied up’ and which, one feels, does no more than discredit both the facility and the institution charged with its execution.
Not only has the Stabroek Business commented on this phenomenon in the past, it has also noted that, not infrequently, these seeming administrative/bureaucratic impediments to expeditious access to state funding for small businesses are in no way connected to safeguarding the integrity of the state agency. Some small business owners have described the phenomenon as ‘typical Public Service ‘push around’’. The ‘decorative’ pronouncement made in the 2024 budget presentation (“$450 million for Small Business Fund: $331 million for Small Business Bureau”) is, (as we say in Guyana) all well and good. If, however, the budgetary allocation is to translate into meaningful benefits insofar as growing the small business sector is concerned, implementation procedures must be attended by mechanisms that not only ensure that disbursement of allocations designed to target viable small business undertakings are effected expeditiously but that the procedure must also be attended to by scrupulous examination of the soundness of the application in relation to its worthwhileness for approval.
No less important would be that the procedures associated with the processing of the applications not be encumbered by ‘red tape’ that does little more than frustrate the potential borrower whilst degrading the credentials of the executing state-run institution. What we need to guard against is the danger of the state agencies responsible for administering loans and grants becoming, through the manner of their modus operandi, thoroughly discredited. Entities charged with administering state-financed resources for small business development must, a priori, offer conviviality while scrupulously seeking assurances with regard to the execution of client responsibilities. What is not acceptable is infusion into the system of unbearable ‘helpings’ of bureaucracy and ‘red tape’ which do not correspond with the weightiness of what is being asked of the institution by the client. This newspaper has engaged several clients seeking state-funded loans/grants who are considerably critical of what they see as frustratingly time-consuming procedures associated with securing state support for small business ventures.
Here one might add that there is a sense in the manner in which budget presentations are structured which is focused largely on throwing ‘numbers’ at audiences in a manner deliberately designed to elicit favourable responses. What is never put before the listeners in the budget presentations’ are the protracted and tedious processes and procedures associated with accessing those budgeted amounts. From the standpoint of official reportage, the amounts articulated in the 2024 budget presentation “reflects the government’s commitment to support small businesses.” The truth is that after the carefully ‘manicured’ presentations (designed to elicit desired responses) are delivered in the National Assembly and buttressed in subsequent state media reports, the realities that often manifest themselves in the matter of actualizing what is set out in the official presentations can sometimes be decidedly frustrating. That has to change if small business aspirants are to have a greater measure of confidence in the preparedness of the state to better their lives. Here, the gap between the articulation of official undertakings and the actualization of those undertakings continues to be, in a great many instances, the real challenge.
