Trust Fund hands out 144 small biz loans

Over 100 small business owners Thursday received relief funds with advice from the Barbados Trust Fund Limited as it hosted a loan disbursement ceremony at the Parkinson Resource Centre in the Pine.

During the brief function, clients also received tips in marketing and money management to help them better adapt their business models for future growth, despite the uncertainty in the economy as result of the COVID-19 fallout.

General Manager Jerry Amos said the fund has been overwhelmed so far with the interest from clients although so far only about one-tenth of the backlog of applicants have been approved.

“Even from as early as Monday as I spoke to the clients during the opening session, I saw the excitement on the faces of the clients,” said Amos.

“They were really happy to be selected among these [today] because we have a very large backlog, and had to pull these from among the 900-plus persons we have waiting to get loans. In all, I think we have about 1,600 clients in backlog, so it’s really good to have this 144 removed from that backlog.”

In addition to loans, marketing training is another aspect that these small business owners are counting on to broaden their skills into for their products, he added.

“A lot of the clients out there are asking for marketing, so we are actually going to have a marketing drive come next year,” the fund’s general manager said.

“What we are doing is that we are going to have a lot of infomercials with our clients, we are going to have it throughout social media, we are going to work with CBC (Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation) to see if we can have a lot of more exposure for our clients, and what we are going to do, is in the communities every month, we are going to have some pop up markets where we will expose our clients and their products for sale in communities throughout the island.”

Amos also admitted that clients were having some difficulties during this time in keeping up with payments, however, the fund’s intention at the moment is making sure these business owners are able to keep afloat with their products and services during this time.

He said: “What we are looking to do more so than ever is to help clients survive during this time, because we understand it’s really hard. We have been meeting with clients daily, every minute and every hour we have been meeting with clients.

“We want to have an arrangement with every single client on our portfolio; what we recognize is that these clients really need help, and that is why we are really engaging the clients to find out where and how we can help them.

“What we recognized is that some clients really need that marketing, that exposure, that ease off their back with the debt, and what we have put in place is a restructuring program so that we can help these clients get back on their feet.” (SB)