MORIN SEYMOUR, the Executive Director of the Kingston Restoration Campany (KRC), is concerned that the majority of loans sought for micro businesses are being used to establish vending or cookshop enterprises.
In order to reverse this trend, Mr. Seymour said senior leaders in both the private and public sectors will have to team together to attract more men to the programme and move the micro enterprise agenda forward so that available resources are applied to productive endeavour.
Mr. Seymour made the comments on Saturday while addressing the 25th anniversary banquet of the 1978 class of the Vere Technical High School at the Breezes Runaway Bay Hotel. He said that while the programme was reaping success, he is concerned that the majority of loans are being used for vending or the building of cookshops.
"Only 16 per cent (of the loans) was applied to real productive endeavour," he said.
Mr. Seymour also expressed concern that more women than men were making efforts to engage in productive endeavours. "We need to make a greater effort to engage our male population towards productive endeavour," he stressed.
Since the programme was launched in November 2002 by the KRC, in association with the Bank of Nova Scotia and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), loans were granted to 414 persons from 27 groups. Of that number, 73 per cent were female.
Under the programme, small loans of $6,000 are granted to groups of five or six persons each between the ages of 18 and 60, without security. "Some of the groups have done so well that they have paid back at least three cycles of borrowing and are on their 4th, building a business...," the KRC head said.
He implored the audience to search for the "best leaders" that are so demanded by the 21st century business environment.
"They are both here in Jamaica and the Jamaican Diaspora. Let us find them and take charge of their experience and expertise to help shape the Jamaica of the future."
