Minister of Energy and Business Senator Lisa Cummins yesterday unveiled Barbados’ ambitious vision to become the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) and start-up capital of the world. She was addressing the launch of the Innovation and Growth Market (IGM) 200 initiative at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
The IGM 200 represents a shift from traditional debt financing that has constrained small and medium-sized enterprises. Cummins painted a stark picture of the current financing landscape, revealing that in one sector, businesses were forced to rely entirely on personal loans at a crippling 12.5 per cent interest rate.
“Twelve and a half per cent to finance business – it’s not tenable,” she said. “Debt financing, especially if you are financing it as a personal loan, is not sustainable to grow your business.” The initiative aims to expose 200 entrepreneurs to equity financing concepts, providing them with the same tools that large energy companies use when structuring multimillion-dollar projects.
