Gov’t Taking Measures To Expand MSMEs’ Access To Credit

Chief Technical Director in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Monique Gibbs, says the Government continues to modernise the secured transactions framework in order to expand the scope of assets that operators of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) can use as collateral for loans.

“We want to balance the preferred traditional forms of collateral such as motor vehicle and real estate, which oftentimes MSMEs do not have, with movable assets such as accounts receivables, inventory, machinery and equipment, which constitute precious means to provide guarantee to repay loans,” she said.

Ms. Gibbs was delivering the keynote address at the opening ceremony of the Movable Asset-based Finance workshop on Tuesday (October 1), at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel in St. Andrew.

She noted that modern secured transactions regimes are considered to be milestones in facilitating access to finance for MSMEs.

“It is for this reason that the Ministry engaged the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to provide advisory services to support the development of an action plan for enhancing the secured transactions regime in Jamaica, consistent with successful modern operations in other jurisdictions,” Ms. Gibbs said.

She noted, further, that steps have been taken to enhance the National Personal Property Registry, the Collateral Registry and its legal framework, which allows borrowers to pledge moveable assets as collateral and help to foster transparency between creditors and borrowers.

The Movable Asset-based Finance workshop involved partnership among the Ministry, the IFC, the Bank of Jamaica – National Financial Inclusion Strategy, and the Companies Office of Jamaica, with support from the Government of Canada.

The two-day session, which concluded on October 2, focused on discussions aimed at improving access of the MSME sector to credit.

International and national experts exchanged knowledge and information on secured transactions systems, movable asset-based lending products and the economic benefits that commonly result from these reforms, with representatives from key public actors as well as entities in the private sector.