Qredits granting its 500th loan in St. Maarten (see related story) is indeed a worthwhile milestone. Small business has been referred to as the backbone of society, yet these –sometimes sole – proprietors often have trouble getting financing through regular channels.
That’s also the group targeted in the Enterprise Support Project (ESP) executed by the National Recovery Program Bureau (NRPB) with means from the Dutch-sponsored Trust Fund managed by the World Bank, in which Qredits is also one of the banking partners. Qualifying entrepreneurs, including independent operators such as taxi drivers, can apply for either working capital, the asset and repair package or refinancing existing loans, while these three may also be combined with a maximum of US $150,000.
The most recent release providing a summary of related figures on NRPB’s website dated May 6, 2021, states that up to then 30 requests had been approved for US $1.7 million, with another 85 being processed. More announcements of recipients were since made in the media, but to attain the goal of assisting 500 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) there is probably still a long way to go and the same applies to exhausting the earmarked sum of US $35 million.
One possibility, considering that Qredits handles micro- and small businesses on its own, would be to expand the ESP so it covers a wider part of the in-many-cases-struggling private sector. This could be done by – for example – increasing the current earnings limit of NAf. 100,000 per year.
These initiatives aimed at local business community members are no doubt a big help in overcoming the socioeconomic impacts of both Hurricane Irma and the COVID-19 pandemic. The greater their reach, the better.
