The country is faced with its greatest economic crisis in generations, but many Jamaicans are not taking advantage of business options open to them, says JN Small Business Loans (JNSBL) Limited board member Earl Jarrett.

The government has budgeted $500 million to stimulate small business development, Jarrett said. He added that a significant portion of that funding has not been taken up as many potential borrowers are not aware of the opportunity.

“Through ignorance people are suffering,” Mr. Jarrett said. Interactions with the general public show that most people are not aware of the small business lending facilities open to them.

Many are unaware of the Young Entrepreneurs Programme open to graduating students or the loans available to farmers. Mr. Jarrett was speaking at the Mandeville Hotel in Manchester, at the start of the annual JNSBL client tour on Monday, November 30.

“We have lost some 40,000 jobs across the island,” Mr. Jarrett said. The global economic crisis has reached Jamaica, cutting exports and causing particular damage to the bauxite/alumina industry.

Remittances have fallen by 17 per cent, resulting in a drop of about US$300 million in foreign exchange inflows, he said. “It is also a known expectation that come next year, there is going to be an adjustment in the public sector. “

The Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced a stimulus package in December 2008 which included a focus on small business financing. JN Small Business Loans Limited was designated as one of the approved financial institutions which disbursed some of those loans.

Each year some 40,000 young people are leaving schools, many without jobs, so the Prime Minister announced the creation of the Young Entrepreneurs Programme, Mr. Jarrett said. “Regrettably, the Young Entrepreneurs Programme has not performed to expectation. To date, only a very small number of loans have been granted.”

JN Small Business Loans Limited and its parent organization, Jamaica National Building Society, have recently started working with those involved in agribusiness to provide loans to that sector, Mr. Jarrett said. “We are ready and available to the community at this time of great economic crisis.”

Microfinance clients are typically self-employed, low income entrepreneurs in both rural and urban areas, said JNSBL General Manager Mr. Frank Whylie in his address. Clients are often traders, small farmers, service providers, and artisans and small producers such as tailors and seamstresses.

The aim of JNSBL is to provide those in the loans in the micro-informal commercial sector with loans of $5,000-$300,000 to start or expand their businesses, Mr. Whylie said. For small and medium sized businesses, loans are also provided for expansion.

The General Manager added that free business training was provided to clients in all fourteen parishes of the island.