BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – NEARLY a year after its announcement to the public, the National Entrepreneurial Development Division (NEDD) has failed to see an official launch, despite promises by Ministry of Finance officials to do so.
NEDD was announced last December and was designed by the Ministry of Finance to provide new and emerging small businesses with assistance. As part of its mandate, NEDD would guide prospective entrepreneurs to develop comprehensive business plans and find ways to finance them.
In a December 29 interview with SKNVibes, Minister of Finance Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris was optimistic that the NEDD would be established within the first few months of 2009.
“By March, NEDD should be fully established and would be up and ready to bring all the plans into final realisation. We are finalising the recruitment of additional technical support staff to provide assistance in developing business proposals and advising prospective entrepreneurs interested in launching into business. We already have applications for staff being processed, and are currently working on getting equipment and our website, which should expedite the process,” Harris informed.
In the 2009 Federal Budget, close to EC$300 000 was allocated to the Ministry of Finance for NEDD, with the bulk of the allotment geared toward the establishment of the new federal division. Now, eight months after the announced deadline, NEDD has barely made progress off the ground.
In mid-August of this year, Business Development Officer at the Ministry of International Trade Phillip Browne attributed the delay in the full actualization of plans to a lack of physical space, a problem Harris had identified after missing the March deadline. Since then, Browne had promised that the NEDD would have its official launch in early September and would be preceded by a series of media events and public service announcements.
In early November, SKNVibes contacted the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry H.E. Rosalyn Hazelle and she explained that the mandate of the NEDD would be grounded in the National Policy on Small Business Development (St. Kitts and Nevis) and that the second delay was as a result of the Small Business Development Bill not being passed into law.
She said that while the initiative could not have been officially launched, the office of NEDD is fully functional and has already begun to assist businesspersons.
“It [the bill] was now passed in the last Parliament [sitting] that we had. We have a policy in place. The staff has been addressing applications, helping persons to do their business plans and to get their business license, but there was no official launching because the legislation had not been passed in the House.
“You cannot officially launch the entity when the legislative mandate is not in place,” Hazelle said.
She emphasized that although there was “no big publicity and to do” about NEDD’s official launch, the staff has undertaken training programmes and has been involved in “a number of informational provisions”.
While no commitment has been given by the Ministry, SKNVibes understands that the official launch will be held before the end of this year.
