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Jamaica Government And Inter-American Development Bank Sign US$50 Million Agreement For MSME Project

Jamaica's Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. Nigel Clarke (left), and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Caribbean Group Country Manager, Therese Turner Jones, display signed copies of the US$50 million Boosting Innovation, Growth and Entrepreneurship Ecosystems (BIGEE) Program, at the Finance Ministry in Kingston, last Friday. Photo credit: Donald De La Haye/JIS.

Jamaica Government And Inter-American Development Bank Sign US$50 Million Agreement For MSME Project

KINGSTON, Jamaica, March 16, 2020 (CMC) – The government and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) have signed a loan agreement — valued at US$50 million — to implement the Boosting Innovation, Growth, and Entrepreneurship Ecosystems (BIGEE) Program, over the next 10 years.

The agreement was signed, on Friday, by Finance Minister, Dr. Nigel Clarke, and General Manager for the IDB’s Caribbean Group Country Department, Therese Turner Jones.

The project will provide financial and technical assistance support for Micro, Small and Medium-size Enterprises (MSMEs), scalable and new business start-ups with high growth potential, and entrepreneurs with sustainable business ideas.

It will also benefit incubators, business support accelerators, and academia, focused on the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.

The project, to be implemented by the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ), will be executed under two five-year US$25 million Conditional Credit Line for Investment Projects (CCLIP) funding facilities.

The program components will include, among other things, provisions for engagements, targeting innovation and growth for MSMEs – US$8.35 million; scalable start-ups – US$8.99 million; and high growth potential start-ups – US$3.47 million.

It is anticipated that these engagements will spur increased economic activity.

Clarke, in his remarks, said the BIGEE Program is intended to fill gaps, within Jamaica’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, while strengthening the existing framework.

It will address challenges, facing MSMEs, including insufficient capital; inadequate equity instruments to assist young entrepreneurs; and “very limited” linkages between research and academic institutions that are generating and commercialising ideas.

“The BIGEE project aims to create new avenues for growth in Jamaica [by] providing support and funding for the development of a comprehensive innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem; providing effective business services to entrepreneurs, who are starting out; and providing a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation,” Clarke said.

In her remarks, Turner Jones said the IDB is pleased to partner with the government, through the DBJ, to execute the program.

“This project, we think, is really going to be a game-changer, [in terms of] how we are going to be working… focusing on productivity, innovation, growth, and value-added, using technology [and] empowering DBJ to do even bigger and better things,” she said.

For his part, DBJ Managing Director, Milverton Reynolds, said the program represents “a continuation of much of the work that we have been providing for MSMEs”.

He added that the DBJ’s implementation of the project is “a role and task that we anticipate with relish”.

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