Ryan Walters, first vice president of the Democratic Labour Party said today: “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.”
Walters was responding to the section of the 2021-2022 Estimates which related to the small business sector.
He said that since taking office in 2018, Government has increased bus fares and introduced a sewage tax and a gas levy, “to name a few things”.
“Now today where micro and small businesses are struggling or closing, larger businesses are laying off workers, a hotel sector on pause . . . where is the drive to empower our people?” he asked.
“The fact is that when Government empowers the small man the big man will also benefit.
“The small man still has to purchase products from big business. He or she has to depend on services from the bigger enterprises to run their business or what some may refer to as their hustle. Everyone wins when you support from the bottom up and this is all we are asking the Government to do,” Walters said.
“The estimates has allocated $10M, this is less than what was afforded to the small business community in the 2018 budget pre pandemic.”
Walters noted that the credit unions are possible sources of finance “offering micro business loans at 5.5% interest”.
“The Government needs to move towards having much more capital available to the sector and at more competitive interest rates if any at all. A more progressive funding model for micro and small businesses must be adopted. The facilitation of venture capital financing rather than 100 per cent loan financing has to be included. There has to be an element of risk and investment on the part of the Government if the sector is going to thrive and provide the economic gains down the road,” Walters said. (PR)
