Businesses in the micro, small and medium-sized sector will be receiving additional assistance from the Government to help them navigate their environment.
While speaking recently at the closing ceremony for the FLITE (National Financial Literacy Camp) Summer Experience at 3Ws Oval, Cave Hill Campus, Minister of Energy and Business, Senator Lisa Cummins, said some small businesses did not fully know their way around the corporate and regulatory space in which they functioned.
“David Simpson has been asked, on behalf of the Ministry of Energy and Business, specifically the Business Division, to put together, in collaboration with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados and others, a consortium of financial advisors to help shepherd small businesses, startups, and growing businesses in an MSME space….
“You would be surprised at how many small business owners don’t have management accounts, have never had audited financials. When they want to go to the commercial banks and they want to come to FundAaccess or to Trust Loans, they don’t have their business in order. We want to…shepherd this country and our small business community through those challenges. And under the Ministry, we will be providing exactly that support to businesses. We will be guiding you through the process from start,” she indicated.
Senator Cummins stressed that her Ministry was keen to give businesses, including potential entrepreneurs, the best possible chance to succeed and grow.
Additionally, she lauded the Small Business Association, saying it has been doing a tremendous job over the years in supporting the small business community.
“We will be working with the Small Business Association and providing them with the financing to provide shepherding to you, to handhold all the way through because we have confidence in what they are doing, and what David [Simpson] is going to be doing, in collaboration with FundAccess.
“We want to…see our nation emerge as a startup nation – the nation that has the highest number of startup small businesses anywhere in the Caribbean, and then anywhere in the world because you have begun to lay a foundation,” she told the campers.
The Minister said that by September this year, the financial literacy programme would be in 90 schools.
About half of the 101 students who attended the camp revealed that they would like to start new businesses. Senator Cummins told the parents to encourage their children and even provide them with their first set of money for the venture.
She urged the parents to help the children understand that nothing comes easy in life. “We live in a generation where oftentimes we think everything comes fast; it comes easy; it comes without effort. We want the rewards without putting in the work. We want the benefits without making the sacrifices. And that’s contributed in no small way to what we all get concerned about when we look at what’s happening around the country.
“Nothing is easy in this life. You’ve got to put in the work; you’ve got to make the sacrifices; you’ve got to make the effort, and your reward is oftentimes proportionate to the effort and the sacrifices that you make. It’s worth it…. Spend wisely, invest wisely, save wisely. Build friendships with people who can inspire you to grow and to do better,” she told the campers.
“Dream it. Design it. Do it” was the theme of the inaugural camp, which was sponsored by Republic Bank and the Cave Shepherd Group Community Fund. The Spirit of FLITE’s Most Outstanding Male was Dominic King, while the Most Outstanding Female was Yhden Layne. The business pitch competition was won by team Black Diamond and the winners received prizes from Digicel.