– 15.1M in relief grants thus far

By Lisa Hamilton

AS small businesses in Guyana manoeuver uncertain times amidst the coronavirus pandemic, the Small Business Bureau (SBB) has done its part by disbursing 91 COVID-19 relief grants to date, totaling $15.1M, while 30 more are being processed.

These figures were confirmed by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the SBB, Dr. Lowell Porter on Monday. The sum provided to each small business depends on their justifiable needs expressed in their application made.

Meanwhile, the 30 additional grants being processed must first be finalised and approved by a committee. “We’re still receiving applications, and we’re still trying to provide,” Dr. Porter said.

Though the Bureau has approximately 10,000 businesses on its database, by law, it can only work with those businesses that have been compliant. Only about 400 of the registered businesses have been compliant.

Asked how the Bureau stands financially with regards to being able to continue providing COVID-19 relief grants, Dr. Porter said that this depends on the amount of subvention received from the government. As a result of the successful no-confidence motion against the former administration and the subsequent five-month-long election, the country still possesses no 2020 Budget, and the SBB has therefore been relying on past finances it has been provided.

In 2019, it received $170M, and Dr. Porter said that the SBB will be looking to advocate for a larger subvention moving forward, but understands that some constraints might exist.

“It’s kind of tricky, because, remember, we have six months already that went past with us actually doing nothing [because of COVID]. We couldn’t travel, couldn’t do anything, but work on the grants for the COVID-19 and conduct training. So, we’ll have to wait and see,” he said.

The aim of the SBB is to strengthen and sustain small businesses, through the provision of relief grants to sustain business operations and retain employees. It also provides training and development support to establish and market businesses through Online platforms, diversify businesses and forge supply partnerships.

As it relates to training, Dr. Porter said that the COVID-19 pandemic has further energised the SBB to move its training Online, so that small businesses in Guyana’s hinterland and far-out regions can have equal access to development.

“We want to actually be able to go out into the Regions, because those are some of the areas that really need help, but the restrictions, due to COVID-19, have made that impossible. One of the things that we’re trying to develop is virtual Online training. It will be made available to clients, so that they can work at their own pace without having to actually come to a physical training,” he said.

The SBB boss noted that there would be a cost to developing such an initiative so plans towards this are still in the works pending the 2020 Budget.