Chief Executive Officer of the Small Business Association (SBA) Dr Lynette Holder is questioning the Government’s delay in establishing the long-promised collateral registry that is intended to improve the access of small business operators to loans.
At the same time, she is renewing her call for the Government to put aside a specific percentage of its procurement for small business operators.
Among the Government’s promised suite of policy and legislative initiatives intended to create a better enabling environment for entrepreneurship and small businesses in Barbados, is the establishment of a collateral registry – a centralised database that records all securities or collaterals of borrowers.
This would allow for moveable assets to be listed as collateral for small businesses when they try to access loans from financial institutions.
In an interview with Barbados TODAY, Holder said while she was satisfied that some progress was being made in some areas, she was disappointed that there has been little to no movement on some of the policies needed to improve the climate of doing business in Barbados.
“We would have been hearing about the collateral registry now for the past four years, but we can’t seem to get it off the ground,” complained Holder.
She said there have been many consultations and task forces but still no movement on the registry.
“Why is it taking four years to get the collateral registry off the ground and that was part of the policy document of the last administration? The collateral registry is intended to provide a registry of moveable assets that would allow, for example, a farmer to use equipment as collateral for financing. So it was intended to improve the access to finance. So tell me why is it taking four years to come to fruition?” the SBA CEO questioned.
Holder said she welcomed the thrust by Export Barbados to get more firms export ready and have greater access to overseas markets through the recent launch of the multi-million-dollar international food science centre.
This, she said, was something the SBA had been lobbying for over the years and she was glad it was finally becoming a reality.
“Small firms do not have the capital to be able to invest in the certification and standard on their own, so a government facility that you can go in . . . [and] you can manufacture at increased volumes using the facilities there and use testing is welcomed. So we support that thrust of Export Barbados,” said Holder.
However, she highlighted the continued complaints from small contractors about not getting a fair share of government projects.
“I am not satisfied. What is the value of government projects going to small contractors?” questioned Holder.
“We need to have a system in place where we are better able to manage and report, in a transparent way, the work being provided to small contractors, for example, because there is a lot of talk about the capital works projects to help drive economic activity and so on. I am saying that is good, so let us make sure our small contractors are able to benefit from a significant enough percentage of this,” she insisted.
“We are still calling for this. It has not been done. We still believe that the procurement legislation, even though passed, does not, in our view, address the setting aside of a percentage of government procurement for small firms, for vulnerable businesses,” Holder said, referring to the Public Procurement Act which was passed in Parliament in December 2021.
“And that needs to be addressed because Government represents the biggest domestic market and you cannot have a situation where only big businesses benefit.”
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