For Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) to sustainably expand their operations, they will require not only financial support but technical assistance from experts who can help them navigate the processes. The Caribbean Development Bank’s (CDB) various teams within its Private Sector Division headed by Lisa Harding, know that micro and small operators are often consumed with making the next sale or chasing a new client.

The development bank’s experts are keenly aware that it is common for other critical components within MSMEs such as the establishment of necessary operational structures, continuity planning, and proper financial reporting, are neglected due to a lack of capacity and other operating weaknesses.

The CDB, an A-rated institution by global agencies such as Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, commits substantial sums annually to ensure the MSMEs across the bank’s 19 Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs) are better positioned to expand and increase their contribution to the economic sustainability of the region.

Michel Thomas, Senior Operations Officer of the Caribbean Technological Consultancy Services (CTCS), has direct oversight of the Regional Technical Assistance Programme to Strengthen Business Management, Digitisation and Resilience in MSMEs. CTCS is the Bank’s main MSME technical assistance programme involved in mobilising the region’s top skills and knowledge leaders from multiple stakeholders, including regional and national institutions, who are then engaged to provide technical assistance or financing to MSMEs in the Bank’s BMCs to support enterprise development.

Thomas explained that 174 business development officers and specialists from the Bank’s BMCs were strengthened through three regional train-the-trainer workshops in areas such as Management, Social Media Marketing, Business Continuity Planning, and Financial Literacy. CTCS will provide follow-on training and one-on-one technical assistance to MSMEs in their respective countries. These represent areas identified by MSMEs as weak points in their enterprises that require increased attention.

Thomas asserted that even though many micro and small enterprises remain in the informal sector, their contribution to unemployment reduction, social cohesion, economic activity, and poverty reduction, cannot be underestimated. “We want to enable them to be in a better position to access financing and improve their operations model. The businesses to be targeted for this project are required to be registered enterprises,” he outlined.

One of the Business Support Organisations (BSOs) that received training is the Barbados Youth Business Trust (BYBT). BYBT and affiliate organisations in Jamaica, St Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica and Anguilla are pursuing the creation of a consortium to develop programmes to assist youth businesses across the Caribbean. Cardelle Fergusson, General Manager of BYBT, highlighted the value of the Regional Technical Assistance Programme to Strengthen Business Management, Digitisation and Resilience in MSMEs training component for BSOs such as the BYBT.

Fergusson stated “The workshop on business continuity provided a platform for discussion on how BYBT and other BSOs can provide business owners with the support needed to devise a plan for the enhancement of their resilience in times of crisis and to prepare for possible disruptions to their business models.  These are tools that we, as an organisation, can take on board and lead by example for the ones we serve.”

Outlining why the CDB insists on providing support to the MSME sector, Thomas put it this way “A study conducted by the CDB three years ago affirmed the undeniable role of MSMEs in our economies. MSMEs are a significant contributor to employment . . . . They contribute between 60and 70 percent of GDP in the economies of the region and they represent between 70 and 80 percent of all enterprises. They are a group that cannot be ignored.”