Shaw encourages equity financing

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Hon. Audley Shaw, has advised persons seeking to establish businesses to consider equity financing over the high interest rates charged by some financial institutions.
“Instead of paying interest rates at the banks that would make your projects unviable, consider going to the junior stock exchange for your equity financing,” Mr. Shaw said.
“We have no tax on profit for the first five years, and in the second five years we only tax 50 per cent of profits: we are giving you a chance to go the route of equity financing rather than high interest financing,” the Minister said at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Jamaica Stock Exchange and Northern Caribbean University (NCU) to promote the JSE’s e-Learning offerings on Thursday (October 21).
He added that the Government’s low interest rate policy must be understood by lending institutions.
“I am sending the signal to the commercial banking community that we are going for low interest rates and, if you don’t come with us to low interest rates, we are going to find a way to circumvent the high interest rates being charged by the commercial banks,” he stated.
Mr. Shaw said that the needs and aspirations of Jamaicans are high, and there is a need to demystify economics to the public at large, by explaining what makes for a healthy economy, and how sound economic and financial management can make a difference in people’s everyday lives.
He said that the MOU was timely because, given Jamaica’s experiences with schemes promising mega returns, financial literacy will help the society understand that promises of 20 per cent and more interest per month is just to transfer money from one set of people to another.
“We have got to identify consumer wants and needs; we have got to be inventive, creative and have got to find ways to satisfy those wants and needs. And you will do that by either producing a product that satisfy that want, or creating and producing a service – from that you can make increments, depending on how creative your solution is. If your idea is good enough and catches on, you can make a lot of money,” Minister Shaw said.
The MoU between the JSE and NCU is geared towards promoting the Exchange’s e-Learning postgraduate Diploma in Financial Services Management to senior students, employees in the financial sector, and graduates of the University.