As the regional lobby for enhanced institutional support for women-led businesses grows more intense, Republic Bank has made public its partnership with BPD Associates Ltd, a Business and People Development organization to launch its first ever Entrepreneurs Business Builder programme.
Launched on Monday, the programme is designed to “assist established women entrepreneurs with creating technology-enabled sustainable and profitable businesses,” a release from Republic Bank headquarters in Port of Spain said.
The release said the initiative will bring together “in one virtual space” 150 women from various Caribbean territories, including member countries of the Caricom. Guyana is among the countries that are part of the initiative.
Republic Bank said that investing in the development of small and medium enterprises, especially our women-owned businesses, ensures that the region will continue along a path to sustainable development.
The bank’s Executive Director Derwin Howell is quoted in the release as saying that the, “group-wide initiative also aligns with our commitment to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Banking. By training our female entrepreneurs to create avenues for technological advancement and innovation in their business practices and by ensuring that these practices are environmentally safe and sustainable we ensure that the future of our Caribbean is in good hands.”
For Guyana, the initiative comes at a time when both government and banking institutions are coming under pressure from a constituency of women involved in the agro-processing, craft and beauty care sectors to do more to help them grow their businesses. Over the years, there have been concerns that women-led micro and small businesses in Guyana do not attract sufficient official support and are viewed by commercial banks and other lending institutions as high-risk borrowers often on account of the nature of their ventures.
