PM Calls for More Financing for MSMEs

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Portia Simpson Miller, has called on the financial institutions to facilitate more lending to the productive sector, especially to viable micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME).

She argued that the provision of financing to MSMEs will help to foster entrepreneurship, and in turn, facilitate job creation, increased output, and revenue for the country. 

“I invite the financial services sector to partner with the government in the process of economic recovery by playing a more active role in driving investment and growth.  I ask you to give due consideration especially, to non-traditional enterprises such as those in the creative industries, for example, entertainment, music and sport …the productive sector is important to the national recovery process,” she stated.

“When you help your members to create wealth, they will save more and they will borrow more,” the Prime Minister said on February 29, as she delivered the keynote address at the official opening of Jamaica National (JN) Financial Services Centre in Catherine Hall, St. James.

The state-of-the-art office complex of the Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS) and its subsidiaries, JN Fund Managers Limited and NEM Insurance Company (Ja) Limited, offers a mix of financial services while at the same time, creating some 20 direct job opportunities.

The Prime Minister commended JNBS for “bringing this new facility of integrated financial service delivery to reality,” noting that it served to demonstrate the institution’s “abiding faith in our people and our country”.

She noted that the building societies, for more than a century, have played a vital role in improving the lives of their members and fostering meaningful social and economic transformation.

“My challenge to you is to continue to find creative ways to help your members to realise their financial dreams … what is striking about JN and the many building societies… is their abiding concern and commitment for the welfare of their members,” she stated.

“I encourage you to keep on doing what you are doing. Let us all work together as one Jamaica, one family, shaping the future together,” the Prime Minister added.

Mrs. Simpson Miller then joined Chairman of JNBS, Hon. Oliver Clarke, in cutting the ribbon to signal the official opening of JN Financial Services.    

By Glenis Rose, JIS Reporter