MONTEGO BAY, St James — Just when Milissa Parker-Perry’s chickens stopped producing eggs in her rooftop coops, she got a grant to buy new birds. She is among the the St James Municipal Corporation’s Local Economic Development (LED) Unit business grant.

“I had some old layer fowls and at the time they stop laying. I got that money right on time to get some new ones to keep the business up,” she told the Jamaica Observer at her house in Retirement, St James.

Sections of her roof serve as a base for the coop that houses layers she bought from funds received under the 2023/2024 iteration of the LED grant.

“I was able to put in 100 plus to what I had, to make it 300 plus layers. The grant was a very good thing for me,” said Parker-Perry.

She has been in the business since 2015 and things have not always been smooth but now things are looking up.

“I just registered the business now and I’m focusing on the growth of the business,” she stated.

Most of her clientèle are in the nearby communities of Bogue Village and Montego West Village, but Parker-Perry is looking forward to expanding.

“What I am trying to do now is to grow the business where I can distribute to supermarkets in the parish,” she revealed.

“My father gave me a piece of land in Mandeville and I hope to have maybe 10 layer coops different from the broilers, that’s where I want my business to go,” she added.

Like the chicken farmer, craft vendor Kimberly Scott said the grant she received last year came just in time.

“When I got it I didn’t have any money to get any goods to restock in my business,” she told the Observer.

“I was able to take that support and continue the business and I move forward,” she added.

Scott, who is confined to a wheelchair due to an issue with her legs, said this support helped her maintain her independence as a business operator.

“It’s a good thing to be an entrepreneur, work for your own self. When you don’t have a job, you don’t know where your next meal is coming from and so it is a good thing to have something that turns over,” she explained.

“It may not be as fast as you want it to be but as time passes by, you know that things change and therefore it is a good thing,” she added.

Scott also has plans to expand her business by offering a greater variety of goods.

The LED programme has become the primary way that the St James Municipal Corporation supports micro enterprises within the parish, providing individuals across various divisions with financial support.

When first launched, grants totalled about $5 million; now beneficiaries each get a share of $17 million.

“These are micro businesses, persons who indulge in farming and so forth. I can recall from several reports, given by the LED office, farmers have invested, adding like 100 chickens and managing that business over the next year or so. At the end of the year, they were able to push the business now to raising 1,000 chickens,” remarked mayor of Montego Bay, Councillor Richard Vernon.

He is pleased that the municipal corporation which he leads is able to support these types of initiatives and see what they achieve over time.

“Things like these are what we are looking at in terms of building out the local economy. This is important to the city of Montego Bay because what it does, it fills the gaps where unemployment is an issue,” said Vernon.

The most recent batch of grants was handed out on September 18. Most beneficiaries received $30,000 each. Among them was Ricardo James, who has high hopes of expanding his growing car spraying business. He said he will use the money to purchase gear including a respirator and spray gun.

“I am also planning to do an expansion where I can sell electronics to include car chargers and those things,” he told the Observer.

With information gleaned from a presentation at the grant presentation ceremony, James also has plans to register his business.

A view of Milissa Parker-Perry’s rooftop chicken coop at her home in Retirement, St James.