THE Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC) is targeting at least 900 businesses per annum to benefit from its external small business development centres (SBDCs).

The JBDC operates a network of 14 SBDCs islandwide — nine functioning externally via strategic partnerships — where entities can access support from concept to market. The agency has the goal of reaching at least 100 business per year via its external centres.

Chief executive officer of the JBDC Daenia Ashpole said that the aim is to link the entities to a facility that best fits their business needs.

“The JBDC aims to route entrepreneurs at the scaling stage to a centre that suits their businesses, targeting at least 100 MSMEs per external centre annually. At this stage we want our MSMEs to experience access to finance,” she said.

Ashpole was addressing the recent launch of the Jamaica Employers’ Federation (JEF) and the Young Entrepreneurs’ Association of Jamaica’s (YEA’s) Business Development Centre at the JEF Ruthven Road offices in Kingston.

She noted that the JBDC is mandated to help businesses move beyond formation into sustainable growth with strong operations and measurable impact.

“At the JBDC we try to ensure that our programmes are agile and that they are robust and responsive. The scale of change that we want Jamaican enterprises to have requires really solid partnerships because we want them to move from starting and operating to scaling, and growing and exporting,” she pointed out.

Ashpole said preliminary discussions have already been held with the JEF and the YEA to explore the possibility of joining the SBDC network.

“I look forward to advancing those discussions and streamlining our work,” the JBDC head said.

— JIS