Just over $5.5 billion in loans and grants are expected to be disbursed to some 13,325 applicants by the Students’ Loan Bureau (SLB) during 2021/22. These form part of the overall 13,858 eligible applicants on whose behalf the SLB will be disbursing funding to tertiary institutions to finance undergraduate and post-graduate studies. As stated in the Jamaica Public Bodies Estimates...

Fitch Ratings Agency, on Thursday, March 18, 2021, affirmed Jamaica’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘B+’ with the outlook remaining Stable. The rating action by Fitch reflected: - A favourable business climate according to the World Bank Doing Business Survey; - The expectation that Jamaica will be “one of the few Fitch-rated sovereigns to post a primary surplus...

Jamaica’s public debt has remained flat over the past year despite the major fall in Government revenue and increase in expenditure as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19). This was disclosed by Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, while making his contribution to the 2021/22 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on Thursday (March 18). He said that...

The Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) is to disburse $8.49 billion in loans, during the 2021/22 fiscal year. As stated in the Public Bodies Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for the year ending March 2022, the sum is inclusive of US$16.91 million, up from US$10.25 million in 2020/21. The DBJ will also seek to provide financial and non-financial products to...

Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) is advising employers that the due date for filing the Employer’s Annual Return (S02) is Wednesday March 31, 2021. Taxpayers are reminded that the Return MUST be filed online using the tax portal at www.jamaicatax.gov.jm and can only be done once employers and/or their agents are registered to do so. Support for employers and/or their agents who wish...

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, has said that the one-off dividend of $33 billion from the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) will be placed in the Consolidated Fund in the first week in April. Opening the 2021/22 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on March 9, Dr. Clarke said the one-off dividend of...

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, says the decision to allow students seeking a loan from the Students’ Loan Bureau (SLB) to only need one guarantor was done out of a need to balance accessibility with sustainability. “The SLB doesn’t work if it can’t be sustained, it doesn’t work if monies lent are not...