SDC Hopeful Morant Bay Urban Centre Traffic Will Pour Into New Economic Village

The Social Development Commission (SDC), St. Thomas, is banking on the anticipated foot traffic from the Morant Bay Urban Centre to breathe life into its new Economic Village, a quarterly market space designed to empower local micro and small businesses.

Launched on September 26 as part of a broader push for community-based entrepreneurship and local economic growth, the Economic Village will serve as a hub where artisans, farmers, and small-scale producers can showcase and sell their goods.

“The concept is to get local micro businesses to come out and share what they have,” explained Parish Manager, Lorian Peart-Roberts.

“We’re providing support through business planning, packaging, marketing training, and ensuring product quality with the help of partners like the Bureau of Standards Jamaica and the Scientific Research Council,” she told JIS News in an interview.

The event will be held on the SDC’s compound, which is located just across from the Morant Bay Urban Centre. It will be staged on the last Friday of each quarter, potentially creating a calendar event for both vendors and shoppers, with the SDC hoping it will also become a staple attraction for visitors to the Centre.

“We do hope that with the new Urban Centre, it will allow people to come across and see what we have,” Mrs. Peart-Roberts said.

Nzinga Allen was one of the vendors at the inaugural staging of the Economic Village. “We are really looking forward to this because, as local initiatives, we are always looking for spaces where we can sell our products, extend our reach and reach customers we may not normally meet on a regular walk-in [basis],” she told JIS News.

Ms. Allen is the owner of Irie Lyfe, a business that uses honey to create value-added products, such as skin and haircare products as well as condiments.

“We are farmers, we are beekeepers, and we are all-round entrepreneurs,” she pointed out, while noting that there is much potential in St. Thomas for a boom in local businesses using the parish’s natural resources.

She heaped praises on the SDC for initiatives, such as the Economic Village, that serve to empower micro and small business owners in the parish.

“SDC tends to see beyond what we are seeing and knows what it is that we need, and what they try to do is they try to put that in place, and the economic village is a perfect example. They realise that after working with us and helping to build our businesses, we need places to showcase what we do. This is the beginning of something great,” Ms. Allen said.