The Government of Saint Lucia is providing more support to the private sector to mitigate the impact of COVID 19 with the repurposing of another loan. The assistance is being channeled through the Saint Lucia Development Bank.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the global economy at virtually all levels, necessitating government, private sector and international agency action to mitigate these effects.  Small & medium size enterprises, SMEs, have been affected on both the supply and the demand side of the economy, creating a crippling cycle. For instance, On the supply side, illnesses, quarantines, and a lack of childcare have reduced the amount of labor resources available to SMEs. At the pandemic’s outset, the supply chain was disrupted, causing shortages of raw materials, parts, and goods needed by SMEs to produce their goods or services.

The Climate Adaptation Financing Facility (the CAFF) has been providing low-cost financing to small and medium-sized businesses since 2017 to help them build resilience to climate change. The Department of Economic Department approached the World Bank to repurpose part of the CAFF.

Permanent Secretary in the Department of Economic Development, Claudius Emmanuel says “the CAFF is some five million dollars of which 4.5 million is dedicated to financing. With COVID there was tremendous impact on small enterprises given the lockdowns and meeting the various protocol measures associated with the Pandemic. These would have resulted in significant loss in business and so with a view to helping those private sector businesses kick start their operations it was felt that the key requirement would be financing to allow them to do so. We thought that the critical component would be to provide that support through income to get back on their feet”.

The part loan part grant facility is being implemented through the St Lucia Development Bank, SLDB. Managing Director, Vincent Boland says, “the SLDB has focused on businesses with entrepreneurs that employ under five people or ten people in their establishment. These small businesses come to us but the challenge we are having is that the accounting records for some of them are not in order. Their ability to put together their Financial Statements as well as a Business Plan tends to be a little onerous on them. But we at the SLDB have been reaching out to them, providing the assistance and guidance. We are asking persons who have made enquiries, who have applied to come back and speak to us to see how best we can help develop your Business Plan, put together your information that would allow you to access the funding”.

Several small and medium-sized businesses have accessed nearly XCD$1million dollars in recovery financing thus far.

Boland says “the rate is still at a very low introductory rate of 4.5%. The process is that you identify the application form on the SLDB website, you download it, fill it out and send it back to us. That starts the ball rolling. If you can send us at that same time your Business Plan that’s even better. The other requirement is that you have to demonstrate that you have had up to 30% reduction in revenue due to COVID 19”.

The CAFF Business Recovery Program received technical and financial support from the World Bank, the Climate Investment Fund and the European Union through the ACP-EU Natural Disaster Risk Reduction Program.

For more information please contact the SLDB at Tel: +1 758-456-7532 or Email: mybank@sldb.lc. You can also visit the SLDB on Bridge Street, Castries.