With the provisions of the 2019 budget pointing in the direction of a major focus on small business development in the new year, government appears to have handed the Small Business Bureau (SBB) a major role in positioning the sector as a factor in ensuring economic growth and employment generation in the new year.
On Monday, Minister of Business Dominic Gaskin told the National Assembly that the Bureau will assume an increasingly critical role in the national response to the three “main challenges” facing small businesses in Guyana, ‘training, access to finance and improved opportunities for small businesses.”
In his post-budget presentation in the House, Gaskin disclosed that up to November this year the Bureau had been instrumental in facilitating training for 948 operators in sectors that include cosmetology, soap manufacturing and sustainable forestry. Additionally, the Bureau had played an important role in supporting 387 displaced GUYSUCO workers with training in areas that include plumbing, transitioning to farming, catering, sewing and the preparation of loan and grant applications.
