Cabinet has approved Barbados’ 2025 Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise (MSME) Strategy.
Minister of Energy and Business, Senator Lisa Cummins, made the disclosure on Saturday, as she addressed the opening of FundAccess’ Keeping It Real video series forum in celebration of World Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Day 2025, at Haymans Market.
Senator Cummins told her audience: “We now have a national framework for the investment of, the development of, and support for the MSME sector…. Through that strategy, we intend to have a roadmap. That roadmap is meant to say to each and every agency what we are doing year on year…in support of our small businesses.
“Through the Small Business Association, we also have work, which is under way, with support of the Central Bank, …to update the 2016 study on the size of the small business sector…. At 2016, we knew that…close to 98 per cent of the entire business sector was in the micro, small and medium-sized category. Now in 2025, we expect to have the benefit of that additional research which gives us an updated approach.”
The Minister shared that with the combined efforts of the Small Business Association, and agencies under her Ministry, including FundAccess and the Barbados Trust Fund Limited (BTFL), a full suite of support programmes for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises would be rolled out.
She encouraged large businesses to support small businesses by providing spaces for them to showcase their products.
“Fixed spaces like these [at Haymans], supermarket shelves, [and] retail shelves – they are a place for global business, but they are also a place for small and local business. I want to encourage our business community to rally around the support and development initiatives that are being undertaken by all of the development agencies to ensure that we have businesses that are not world-class in name but world-class in deed, and that we are able to put businesses on the map right here in Barbados,” Senator Cummins stated.
She also revealed that the web-based app – PriceCheck – which Government launched last year, will be expanded to include a new component that will benefit clients of FundAccess, BTFL, and other small businesspersons.
“We will be providing you with a dedicated platform on PriceCheck, so that you have your own online retail market, where Barbadians are able to find you online…. Not every business has an online presence, not every business has the ability to have a website and through the Ministry of Energy and Business, we will be providing the technical support to the relevant agencies to ensure that you have a presence that allows you to onboard onto the PriceCheck app,” Minister Cummins stated.
The forum brought together key voices in the areas of policy, business, and entrepreneurship to amplify the role of MSMEs in building resilient economies.
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Day is observed globally on June 27 to recognise the crucial role that small businesses play in achieving sustainable development goals worldwide. This year’s theme was Enhancing the Role of MSMEs as Drivers of Sustainable Growth and Innovation.