Jamaican-born businesswoman Valrie Grant, whose company GeoTech Vision Enterprises has established a second home here in Guyana last Thursday told the opening ceremony of the 2016 Jubilee Anniversary GuyExpo that the central bank coupled with commercial banks can play a significant role in supporting the channeling of investment to the small business sector.
“To encourage commercial banks to lend to SMEs, central banks and designated financial service regulators must play a proactive role,” Grant, who served as guest speaker, told the Sophia audience. “Government and the central bank must set out a policy framework for channeling adequate funds to the SME sector,” she said, adding that government and the Bank of Guyana “may also consider a set of special measures for SMEs.” Listed amongst the measures identified by Grant are “guarantee programmes” and what she described as “more user-friendly and transparent disclosure systems to reduce the risks perceived by banks.”
And in what was clearly an aggressive lobby for heightened official attention to entrepreneurship as a critical developmental tool, Grant declared that if the envisaged speeding up of the country’s development is to become a reality “promoting and sustaining entrepreneurship will therefore have to be
