KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) has launched a $10-billion M5 Business Recovery Programme to support businesses that have been disrupted by the passage of hurricane Melissa.

Managing Director, DBJ, Dr David Lowe, provided details of the programme during a press briefing at Jamaica House on November 26.

Through the programme, businesses in agriculture, manufacturing, distribution, and tourism that qualify for assistance can gain access to between $20 million and $50 million from DBJ partner institutions – approved financial institutions (AFIs) and microfinance institutions (MFIs).

Dr Lowe explained that focus will be placed on refinancing, rebooting and rebuilding.

“The first we have coined the name the refinance window. These are businesses that might have been indirectly affected, which already have credit facilities, and what we’ve done is to look at how we can engage in an assessment of terms, relax certain issues that can allow them to continue and have some breathing space,” he said.

“The second is what we refer to as the reboot window, and this is also what we have referenced as a light touch. You may have just some short-term needs, you have inventory to be replaced, you have some infrastructure damage that’s not material to your ongoing operations, but you need to get back to where you were pre-storm,” Dr Lowe said.

He noted that the most important is the rebuild window, which is a longer phase engagement and “these are businesses that have pretty much been totally disrupted”.

Dr Lowe explained that immediately after the passage of Category Five Hurricane Melissa, the DBJ engaged in a number of consultations with existing beneficiaries on loan and credit facilities, approved financial institution (AFI) partners, banks in the country, microfinance institutions, the Small Business Association of Jamaica, Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, and other key partners.

He said these engagements were critical, as they were able to get an understanding from the various groups about what their members were facing.
Dr Lowe said the DBJ is committed to finding the best solution to make access to credit facilities easy, frictionless, “and supported by our partners in the financial sector”.

“We are also going to roll a grant programme into our funding needs, and how this grant programme is going to work is that we want to encourage innovation. We want to encourage things that can bring greater levels of resilience,” he added.

He said the DBJ will also be offering credit collateral support in instances where buildings that would be on offer for collateral are no longer available.

“This collateral support will be wrapped into all these new facilities, up to 80 per cent cash secured that any bank that has an eligible beneficiary or candidate can have access to the funding and have the Development Bank of Jamaica’s support for collateral enhancement, to make sure that eligibility for this money is possible and doable,” he said.

Dr Lowe said the M5 Business Recovery Programme is designed to assist with recovery and resilience, pointing out that the funding is broken into three key phases and stages of deployment.

“The first is a one-billion-Jamaican-dollar fund available to all of the AFIs and MFIs which are our partners in the financial sector and they have immediate access to this $1-billion fund, which is part of the DBJ’s current balance sheet,” he informed.

“The second phase, which was approved at Cabinet this week, is $3 billion which is a further support for the engagement … in terms of how we will be supporting Jamaican businesses. There’s a further commitment of $7 billion which will assist in the overall rebuilding of particular sectors, supply chains and other economic actors,” Dr Lowe said.

— JIS