BASSETERRE St. Kitts, December 21, 2011 -- An official from the Centre for the Development of Enterprise (CDE), has said that his organisation is working with the Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis to promote small and medium size enterprises in the Federation, as the Development Bank has a functional Business Support Unit.
“In St. Kitts and Nevis we are currently dealing with the Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis,” said Mr James Campbell, Programme Coordinator, SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) Finance Access Facility in the Caribbean (SAFFC) of the regional office of the Centre for the Development of Enterprise (CDE) in the Dominican Republic.
“The Development Bank has a past relationship with the European Investment Bank, so that they are known to the EIB,” said Mr Campbell who was in the Federation last week. “We also like the (Development Bank’s) programme they are actually running, which we believe they are very focussed in terms of the assistance that they give.”
In September this year, the Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis signed an agreement with the Centre for the Development of Enterprise (CDE), which is a European Union (EU) funded institution that will enhance the Bank’s ability to offer technical assistance to its small and medium size enterprise clients.
According to the Development Bank’s General Manager, Mr Lenworth Harris, who signed on behalf of the Bank, the agreement valued at €110,000, was significant as it relates to the productive sector, the engine of much needed economic growth in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis. CDE Director, Mr Jean Erick Romagne, had signed the agreement documents before they were sent to the Bank for Mr Harris’ signature.
In his visit to the Development Bank last week, Mr Campbell who held meetings with staff at the Business Support Unit of the bank said that “I don’t think that many of the banks have a business unit as this one has. I think the vision of the General Manager (Mr Lenworth Harris) is very well thought of in terms of how he wants to provide this assistance to the small businesses.”
He said that the aim of the SME Finance Access Facility in the Caribbean (SAFFC) is to work with the banks and financial intermediaries to get assistance to the small and medium size enterprises of the region. The project is funded mainly through the European Investment Bank and provides technical assistance at pre-investment and post-investment stage.
“We are actually working to build capacity with, and to assist, the small businesses and also working along with the banks hopefully to do some institutional strengthening in that area as well,” said Mr Campbell who also represented the European Investment Bank at the Development Bank’s 30th Anniversary Awards Banquet where the EIB was among the recipients of the Business Partner Award.
According to the head of the Business Support Unit, Mr Shavon Douglas, in the one week that Mr Campbell was here he visited three projects in St. Kitts and one project in Nevis. In St. Kitts they visited the St. Kitts and Nevis Aquaculture Pilot Project and Environment Research (SNAPPER) in Conaree, Mr Randolph Archibald of Cayon who has a galvanise and steel project, and Kittinevi, a company that has a proposal before the bank for the funding of a 100 feet cruise vessel, while in Nevis they visited farmer Ellis Phillip.
“All these projects that he visited are proposals that are before the bank, requesting financing” observed Mr Douglas. “We are requesting technical analysis for these projects to get an assessment of their viability and sustainability from the various industry experts. However, Mr Ellis Philip is an existing farmer and client of the bank and we were looking at providing technical assistance in the areas of marketing and general farm management operations
Centre for the Development of Enterprise (whose regional office is in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic) is an African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) European Union (EU) joint institution created in the framework of the Cotonou Agreement and the Lomé Agreement since 1977 to support development of the private sector in the ACP countries.
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