KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Companies Office of Jamaica (COJ) and the Barbados Government recently engaged in discussions surrounding the use of technology to shore up the growth of small businesses in the region.

The Jamaica-Barbados partnership explores the use of technology, primarily through Jamaica’s National Security Interest in Personal Property Registry (NSIPP), to build the capacity of regional small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In commenting on the significance of the partnership, CEO of the COJ Judith Ramlogan noted that she was pleased to demonstrate the effectiveness of the NSIPP registry as the premier registry in the Caribbean to provide support to the growth of the small business sector.

The COJ said technical assistance by the World Bank/International Financial Corporation led Barbados to engage Jamaica for guidance on how to expand the scope of collateral for the small business community in that country.

The technical showcase was supported by the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus, led by Professor Velma Newton, the regional project director of IMPACT Justice Project.

The agency said the cross Caribbean partnership between registrars of companies, government departments and agencies and academia is part of the regional economic recovery plans which put small business development at the forefront.

Ramlogan indicated that “the NSIPP framework is the Jamaican Government’s response to the complaint by the MSME sector that the collateral requirements of the commercial banks were limited to real property like houses and land and motor vehicles and a very limited range of mechanical equipment”. 

COJ data indicated that from 2014-2020, there were more than 286,000 notices of interests in collateral registered using the NSIPP, indicating that financial institutions were accepting more non-traditional forms of collateral, thus providing MSMEs with greater opportunities to access capital.

“This need to put up collateral as lien historically created a limitation because MSMEs did not have traditional collateral although they may have had other types of collateral including crops, livestock, accounts receivables and intellectual property.  So, the Security Interest in Personal Property Act provided that opportunity to raise capital. The NSIPP registry provides a mechanism that allows financial institutions to give notice of their interests in non-traditional types of collateral to the world,” Ramlogan said.