Almost 50 small businesses benefit from COVID-19 relief aid
The Small Business Bureau (SBB) has assisted approximately 49 local small businesses that were affected by COVID19 with relief grants amounting to a total of $7.7 million sourced from the bureau’s own accounts.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the Small Business Bureau Dr Lowell Porter told this newspaper that the relief grants that are being allocated to small local businesses is being financed by money accrued from the Bureau’s collection of administrative fees.
During a telephone interview, Porter related that $7.7 million has been granted to about 49 local small businesses in Guyana to help mitigate the economic effects of COVID-19. Previously Porter had said that over 300 small businesses had applied for help but he noted that the application process was being slowed down because applicants were not supplying all the necessary information upfront.
He had asked that persons pay keen attention when applying for the assistance and submit the required information speedily.
Porter on Wednesday made it clear that the money supplying this relief fund for small businesses was being taken from accounts directly associated with the Bureau and was not sourced from the government. He explained that the money being used at this time is directly transferred from the Bureau’s accounts because funds from the government have not been deposited to the Bureau for the year 2020. “The Small Business Development Fund is a government fund but no money had been put in the fund for the year 2020. The money that we are using has got nothing to do with the year 2020,” Porter replied when asked where the Bureau was getting the monies from. “The Small Business Bureau does services that we [get] paid for - our administrative fees, so those are the monies that we put in the account,” he further explained.
Locally, many businesses have experienced significant shortfall in economic growth following the widespread coronavirus disease. As a response to the challenges small local businesses are facing, the Small Business Bureau decided to aid businesses attached to the organisation. It has been over a month now that small businesses have been applying for financial aid and have so far funding has been granted in amounts of no more than $200,000.
The amount of money allocated to each business is determined after the business is analysed.
It must be noted that one of the concerns of the Bureau is to ensure that the grants allocated to the small business owners go directly to initiatives that better position their businesses to be self-sustaining; accordingly, some successful applicants can expect cheques payable directly to suppliers of goods and/or services associated with the development of their businesses.