I had occasion to visit the Companies Office of Jamaica on Grenada Crescent. It was very gratifying to see the number of people who were crowded inside the office to do business.

I am sure there were people of different persuasions gathered there, such as those who came about the registration of their own businesses. Others might have been representing companies or might have been attending to the registration of a charity.

Whatever the reason, it was heartening to see the number of people coming in and out of the building. I was told by a security guard that this was standard each business day. It indicated to me that people are willing to do business and have them registered. They want to enter the formal economy.

I have spoken to a number of young people — plumbers, masons, electricians, and other small entrepreneurs who may want to register their professions but are afraid to do so because they fear taxation. Enough is not being done to educate these mostly young entrepreneurs about the benefits and virtue of going the route of registration and getting their businesses formalised, and that they need not fear the tax man for there are greater benefits to be realised when they join the formal systems instead of hustling. Many do not even have a bank account and hardly any savings to show for their hard work at the end of the year. They will listen and some will take action.

But there was a depressing downside to my visit to the premier organisation that assists such formalisation. To begin with, I could count about 40 seats in the little cramped space where people have to sit as they wait to be attended to before being sent to an agent in what I would call the “inner sanctum”. People have to squeeze past one another in the narrow space between seats. The people taking the information sit before a fibreglass partition which is broken in some places and seemed to be held together with transparent tape. You can see the displeasure on people’s faces as they sit and wait and as new people keep crowding into what has to be a 900-square foot space. There were almost 30 chairs in this area.

Work in the inner sanctum when you get there seems quite brisk. The agents appear professional and there is definitely more space to move around. But it was disheartening to see what people have to endure at an important government agency such as this, which has to be at the centre of encouraging entrepreneurship for economic growth. I am not blaming the people who work there; they live with what has been given to them. I lay the blame squarely at the feet of the minister of industry, investment, and commerce, Senator Aubyn Hill, and the personnel at his ministry for the persistence of this state of affairs.

It is imperative that people be accommodated in wider spaces in a more conducive environment that let them know they are valued. They must be made to feel that they matter and are important stakeholders in what you are doing. Not everyone can go online to have their business attended to. When they come to government offices they should not be met with this unnecessary irritation. These are the people who are the backbone of any thriving economy.

There is a tendency to gravitate to great holders of wealth and capital as if they have all the answers. We ignore the so-called small man to our peril. Come on, Senator Hill, we can do better at the Companies Office. By the way, when is your ministry going to open other offices in major towns, such as Mandeville in the central region?

Ralph James, Businessman Extraordinaire

A largely unsung hero, but extraordinary transportation and building giant, died and was buried last Saturday at the Mandeville Parish Church. He touched the lives of many people, both in Treasure Beach, where he grew up, and Mandeville, where he later settled.

A pioneer of the construction industry in Mandeville, he built commercial buildings on which the town is today very dependent. His building activities in his beloved Treasure Beach stand as a testimony to a man of grit and great enterprise. He lived to the age of 95, but he will be sorely missed, certainly by my family and I.

The apocryphal book, Ecclesiasticus, says that there are those who by their deeds left behind things by which they can be remembered. Sadly, others lived as if they never were. Ralph definitely left footprints in the sand of time that will be long seen. May his soul find its rest in God’s peace as his family finds strength in this time of grief.

Companies Office of Jamaica.

Aubyn Hill Photo: JIS

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest, social commentator, and author of the books Finding Peace in the Midst of Life’s Storms; The Self-esteem Guide to a Better Life; and Beyond Petulance: Republican Politics and the Future of America. He hosts a podcast — Mango Tree Dialogues — on his YouTube channel. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or stead6655@aol.com.

Dr Raulston Nembhard