The People’s National Party (PNP) leadership aspirant, Peter Bunting is of the view that greater and better leadership is required to provide small local businesses with an e-commerce platform to succeed in a competitive environment.

“The larger companies are enjoying fairly good times, so to speak, because they are the ones that can access financing at six per cent in Jamaican dollars because the banks are now struggling to find ways to employ their deposits,” he stated. “But [banks] have largely forgotten how to do real cash flow lending to businesses.”

He indicated that gaining access to finance is not the only pressing challenge that small businesses face, but it is a major addition to the disadvantaged position of not being equipped to compete within the business sector.

Speaking at a recent Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange, Bunting shared that there is a necessity for a supportive ecosystem for the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as while larger companies are able to access financing the SMEs are not feeling any of the growth that is reflected at the macro-level.

He added that “some leadership has to be provided by government; we have to give our local businesses, particularly, the SMEs a level playing field to compete”, he continued. “In this technology-driven environment, if they don’t have an easy, accessible e-commerce platform to sell their goods on, they’re going to get left behind.”

Bunting recalled the plight of a business owner who missed out on sale opportunities because of not being able to conduct business transactions via e-commerce. He quoted her as saying that despite Jamaican SMEs not being offered an e-commerce platform by banks, Jamaicans with bank-issued credit cards are able to access international markets, thus customers are more likely to prefer overseas suppliers.

Bunting’s view is reflective of business personnel and other key stakeholders in the business sector who have called for greater financial inclusion for SMEs.