The Ministry of Employment, Trade, Industry and Diaspora Affairs of the Government of Dominica recently embarked on a major initiative, the objective of which is to enhance the small business unit sector in the country.
The Small Business Support Unit (SBSU) was established in October 2008 to assist small and micro businesses. The aim is not merely to promote and develop small business but also to use this policy as a device to alleviate poverty in the country.
Since the program was launched over $2 million has been allocated to that sector. Out of a total of close to 2,000 applications, the Unit has been able to provide forms of assistance to over 600 applicants. Some of the key areas that have been affected include garment manufacturing, barber and grocery shops, snackettes, bars, hair salons and boutiques; support has also been given to agro-processing. For servicing the small business, the island has been divided into seven districts and this has impacted significantly on families, individuals for purchasing stock, small appliances, tools, bakeries and upgrading business enterprises.
The Small Business Unit has co-ordinated very closely with other agencies providing services for the small enterprise sector. To further this objective a series of activities have been planned for Small Business Week. The theme of the week is “Building Dominica through Small Business” and this will culminate in an exhibition carded for the 21st and 22nd of October, 2010.
The week will provide an opportunity for the general public to become familiar with micro, small and medium enterprises in Dominica. It will emphasize the Government’s commitment to providing a whole range of new opportunities for small entrepreneurs and for those who are willing to use their skills to provide jobs for themselves and others to find scope for so doing. Experience has already demonstrated that many of the enterprises that have received support from the Small Business Unit have created further opportunities for two or more persons to be gainfully employed.
The week will provide an opportunity not only to showcase through an exposition at the Windsor Park Stadium the range and scope of small business activity in the country, but will also be a demonstration of the collaborative effort of the small business sector in the country.
The agencies involved include: Dominica Association of industry & Commerce, the Co-Operatives Division, National Development Foundation of Dominica, Invest Dominica Authority, the Aid Bank, the OECS Export Development Unit, and DEXIA.
All these activities are being co-ordinated under the auspices of the Ministry of Employment, Trade, Industry and Diaspora Affairs.
The week will give some new dimension to the extensive reach and scope of the Small Business Unit in the thrust of the government to raise the quality of life of the people of Dominica.
@Anonymous: They only give who they know, fraudulently or otherwise. Just like the housing revolution, people with big jobs and no children, who does not need get the most out of it. Needy people can’t get a rat’s a….. In four years they will go and start looking at who had applied and give them a call. I hope your answers are ready and waiting. I myself found out about it late, so have been struggling on my own; Just waiting for next General Election. I hope Skerrit reading DNO blog too.
i want to come back home and open an IT school in roseau and will need some asisistance from the goverment can any one advise?
$2 million dollars, 2000 applications summited, 600 were successful…i wonder who where that six hundred and how much money that they received. I summited an application to the SBSU even before the office was complete and to this day all i here when i go back to them is “we will call you when the funds are available”. They say that they will give a maximum amount of $50,000 per app but when people want help they don’t even give them half of what they ask for. THE SMALL BUSINESS PROGRAM IS NOTHING BUT A POLITICS THING AND THEY HELP ONLY THE ONES WHO ARE ALREADY ON TOP…WHEN THE PEOPLE WHO NEED THE ASSISTANCE ARE STILL WAITING…KISS MY A** SBSU SOME OF US WILL STILL MAKE IT WITHOUT YOU! Thank god i am not lazy and dependent, my business is growing without you all!!!!!!!
Was SBSU established to assist needy small business owners in Dominica or friends of those who are running the programme, friends here and abroad? I applied for assistance from that establishment four months after it came on stream, when there was money in its account, to continue a genuine and viable business I had already started and to date I am still waiting to hear whether consideration is being given to my application. After numerous telephone calls by me and promises after each call that they will get back in touch with me and never did, someone visited me, completed another form after interviewing me and told me that I should hear from them in a few weeks. It is over two years and I am still waiting. But in the meantime they have paid large sums of money to persons residng overseas who heard about the programme, came home and applied with the honourable help of their honourable friends in high places. They were successful within days of their application for sums larger than the programme’s maximum lending amount. Some of those money just went down the drain b….
So I wonder if that programme is really geared at helping the ordinary man who wants to do something for himself and his family, and create employment for others with families too or for friends and girlfriends of those heading the programme,So much for next level!
YES I SUPPORT THE SMALL BUSINESS PROGRAM BUT MANY OF US WANT TO DO IT ON OUR OWN BUT SOME PEOPLE ARE MAKE IN IT SO HARD FOR US. A SMALL CONTRACTER TAKE A SMALL LOAN TO REPAIR A ROAD IN THE VALLEY ON THE 13 OF AUGUST WITH WORKERS ,MIXER,CEMENT,TURCK,BOBCAT AND TO THIS DAY CAN NOT GET PAY . WERE IS HIS BUSINESS GO IN DOWN . CAN NOT START ANOTHER WHY THE FIRST LOAN NOT YET PAID .HIS FAMILY SUFFERING AND THE WORKERS AS WELL .THERE IS NO CASH FLOW PROBLEM IN THIS SMALL BUSINESS UNIT BUT THERE IS ALWAYS ONE IN THE MAIN BANK OF THE GOVERMENT .AND HE IS BEEN MADE A FOOL OF BY ENGERIES AND OHTERS BUT HIS FAMILY IS STRONG. AND ONE DAY THE BANK WIILL HAVE MONEY.
600 out of 2000? its a good thing that the people are so willing but more than half of them are still unemployed.
SBSU needs a VM msg and needs to answer their phone…..