MSME Support Agencies Merged under a Single Board

The Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce has merged the Jamaica Business Development Corporation, The Micro Investment Development Agency and the Self Start Fund under a single board. The new board headed by Mr. Brian Pengelley, former President of the Jamaica Manufacturers Association, will oversee operations of all three entities engaged in micro, small and medium sized enterprise (MSME) capacity building and lending. The merger is part of a general move to repurpose and reposition the agencies to provide capacity building services for the MSME sector, and to focus on the business of lending to the micro sector at competitive rates and in a more targeted fashion. The merger is the result of efforts undertaken by the Ministry to better coordinate the operations of the three agencies and to streamline their activities in the delivery of services to the sector. This will strengthen the level of business development services offered to MSMEs, while highlighting gaps in the current support mechanism.

Minister Hylton in commenting on the merger stated, “Ultimately, we are seeking to consolidate the services into a single entity that would operate the various windows as required to address the investment life-cycle of the MSMEs. The goal is to implement an integrated framework for the delivery of business development and financial services to the sector. The focus of this effort is to rationalize the programmes and implement institutional restructuring to deliver services to the MSMEs more effectively.” Earlier this year, Minister Hylton appointed an MSME Financing Taskforce consisting of representatives from academia, the private sector and public sector. The mandate of the 2 Taskforce is to assess the MSME landscape with the intention of identifying constraining issues and recommending practical means of addressing them, including an assessment of proposed MSME business development support and financing mechanisms to be implemented by the merged entities.