DBJ Partners With VMIL To Provide SMEs With Additional Funding

The Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) and Victoria Mutual Investments Limited (VMIL) have partnered to invest US$15 million in a new facility that will provide small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with additional funding.

The Jamaica Actus Small and Medium Enterprise Fund 1 (JASMEF 1) will target equity or quasi-equity support for SMEs.

International management advisory and consulting firm Actus Partners, which is headquartered in the United Kingdom, was selected to establish the SME fund.

The focus of the support will be on businesses operating in areas such as technology, climate and renewable energy, agriculture and food security, and tourism.

General Manager for the DBJ’s Project Management Office, Hugh Grant, and VMIL Chief Executive Officer, Rezworth Burchenson, signed an agreement formalising the arrangement, at the DBJ’s head office on Oxford Road in Kingston, on June 30.

Mr. Grant, in his remarks, indicated that the DBJ is investing US$5 million on behalf of the Government of Jamaica, with VMIL committing the remaining US$10 million.

He indicated that the money from the DBJ was provided from a US$15-million World Bank loan, for which the Government signed an agreement in 2018.

Mr. Grant explained that this funding supported the Access to Finance (A2F) for Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (MSME) Project.

This initiative aimed to provide local MSMEs with additional access to finance through the provision of innovative financial instruments.

“A key component of the A2F Project was support [for] the establishment of an SME Fund, which would provide private equity and other instruments to support SMEs in Jamaica. Coming out of this initiative, the DBJ issued a call for proposals from local and international fund managers,” Mr. Grant informed.

He said Actus Partners emerged from that competitive process in 2021 as the preferred candidate to establish the SME Fund.

For his part, Mr. Burchenson described Thursday’s signing as a “very important milestone”, adding that “what we are laying is a foundation for future growth”.

Meanwhile, Founding Partner for Actus, Murat Tasci, noted that the potential of the venture being undertaken is “huge”.

“We would like to focus on high-growth potential SMEs, which Jamaica is not out of at all, and we would like to address the financing gap, when it comes to equity,” he added.