–Min. Gaskin promises gov’t will help

SMALL and ‘micro’ businesses are, and will always be, the drivers of economic growth, in their own right, and need the financial support of agencies that can help. But these enterprises continue to face challenges obtaining credit from lending agencies, an issue the government has said it will be moving to address.

Minister of Business, Mr Dominic Gaskin, has said the government remains committed to making avenues available for these small enterprises to access credit.
He was addressing stakeholders from the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and formal lenders, including banks and micro-finance institutions at the first-ever annual Credit Info National Forum and Expo at the Georgetown Club on Monday.
The event, a collaboration between CreditInfo and the Small Business Bureau of the Ministry of Business, was organised to bring together stakeholders to raise awareness on how the Credit Bureau supports increased access to credit for individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises. It also coincided with the observance of International Credit Bureau Day.
Minister Gaskin said that among the challenges faced by the small business sector in Guyana is its inability to access finance for new and expanding business projects, and to sustain operations over short periods. The result of this, he said, are missed opportunities to expand and develop the economy.
“And small businesses already have particular challenges, which make lending to them more risky,” he said.

According to the minister, because they play such an important role in the economy, lending agencies should want small businesses to succeed. As such, financial solutions need to be developed to make the process much easier.
“In order to develop solutions for small businesses, it is important to understand the needs of these businesses and the needs of the sector they operate,” the minister said, adding that businesses have different financial needs which cannot all be met the same way.
He related that if interest rates are high, for whatever reason, it would be difficult for businesses to operate competitively. “If you’re paying interest at 15 per cent, then you are paying a lot of interest; and you will have to be very precise in your plans, and careful in your spending in order to service that debt, especially in the medium to long-term goals,” Minister Gaskin contended.
He said the government will seek to provide solutions that would make it much easier for small and ‘micro’ enterprises to access credit. But the reality, he said, is that most of these enterprises operate formally, a situation that really does not provide the kind of returns the government would hope to see from them.

The minister said that anyone running a business, no matter how big or small, has certain responsibilities to fulfill. A small operator who is not looking to file National Insurance Scheme (NIS), he said, will not keep the kind of records that would allow a lending agency to make an assessment, should he need credit.
He said the government would like to see more simplified processes for small businesses all around, including compliance at the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) or the NIS, or any other government agency they may be required to pass through in order to operate formal businesses. The government would also want to ensure that these businesses are paying taxes, he said.
“So, as a government, we see small businesses as a source of employment generation, tax revenue generation, and a key contributor to GDP growth,” Minister Gaskin said.
“We will continue to play an active role in the growth and development of that sector,” he added.

CreditInfo Guyana Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Judy Semple-Joseph, said the entity is pleased with what it has been able to accomplish over the last few years of its existence in Guyana, and that it is now a very functioning entity to both suppliers and the wider commercial sector.
“We now have all the banks signed up to Credit Bureau… We are still a work in progress, but we are confident that we provide a service that is very much needed,” Ms Semple-Joseph said.
The license to Credit Bureau was granted to CreditInfo, an Icelandic company which began 20 years ago. Its service has expanded across some 29 countries, and hopes to reach a maximum 50 in three years’ time.