The National Development Foundation of Dominica (NDFD) has appealed to those who have not been adhering to their loans agreements to make an effort to pay their debts as the company will take necessary action to collect.
Executive Director of the NDFD, Cletus Joseph made that call while providing the report for the year ending 2014 at the 33rd Annual General Meeting (AGM) held at the company’s conference room on Wednesday evening in Roseau.
“We again make a call to those who have not been adhering to their loan agreements to honour these commitments as the NDFD is taking all the necessary actions to ensure collection of these,” Joseph warned.
Despite the issue of delinquents on loans, Joseph said the NDFD has remained stable in terms of finances and has performed satisfactorily.
“ As at the end of 2014, the cash position of the foundation remained stable, as seen in the savings account with a year-end balance of $172,658 leaving total cash and short-term funds in excess of $580,000,” he said.
Joseph stated further that the company have recorded a surplus of over $644,000 for the financial year, which was reduced by $364,579 to make provision for bad debts.
“In the context of financial performance the NDFD was able to perform satisfactorily with regard to having the indicators pointing in the desired direction,” he stated. “For the period of 2014, the NDFD generated an operating surplus of $644,855, keeping in line with the previous year. While this was not an increase over the previous year, it must be measured against the backdrop that there was a much bigger effort in providing much-needed assistance to clients with regard to strengthening their businesses, which is a critical aspect of the mandate.”
According to Joseph, the total income for 2014 was $2,107,217, with the main revenue earner being interests on loans which yielded $1,540,169. “Other Income” yielded a total of $524,593.
The “Other Income” was mainly from the following: Loan Processing Fees, $147,244; Rent Revenue, $26,465; Training Fees, $49,921; Business Support, $33,03; and Bad Debts Recovered, $202,394.
Meantime Chairman of the NDFD, Oliver Henderson noted that the NDFD looks forward to providing improved products and services.
He said it is important to bear in mind that when there are challenges, the main aim is, “to overcome, and not be overwhelmed by them.”
“Our every effort will be made to combat these, and especially to continue the fight in reducing our delinquency,” Henderson stated.
This year’s AGM is being held under the theme: “Riding Out the Economic Storm by Empowering the MSME Sector.”
Collect. How? No assets and they’re already in Dominica, so can’t easily be worse off.