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Jamaica’s Grant Financing Programmes for Capacity Development of MSMEs

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KINGSTON, Jamaica - The Jamaican government has continued to provide financing resources for farmers and agricultural value chain firms, enhancing farmers’ ability to access finance. Additionally, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture, and Fisheries (MICA) operates a registry of farms, facilitating their identification.

Capacity Development Initiatives

To support the capacity development of Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs), the government has implemented various initiatives:

  • DBJ provides financing resources for farmers and manages an SME supply chain support and skills upgrading project that will provide opportunities for agricultural value chains.
  • MICA established a number of agro-parks with productive and communication infrastructure to support the growth of MSMEs in the agricultural sector.
  • Exim Bank is supporting the establishment of new, non-traditional agricultural value chains.

Financial Inclusion

The government has made significant strides in promoting financial inclusion through various initiatives:

  • The National Loan Portfolio exceeds JMD 250 Billion, with over 50,000 families carrying mortgages in a responsible manner.
  • The National Housing Trust (NHT) and the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ) have been instrumental in providing affordable housing finance solutions to low-income households.
  • An enforceable Code of Conduct for Deposit-taking Institutions was adopted in 2015, establishing minimum standards of business conduct and provisions to ensure fairness and transparency for financial consumers.

Private Sector Contributions

The private sector has also contributed significantly to Jamaica’s financial inclusion efforts:

  • Banks have continued to expand and enhance self-service banking, including ATMs, cheque deposit boxes, online, mobile, and telephone banking.
  • The credit union sector has piloted a mobile wallet solution allowing customers to perform cash-in, cash-out, person-to-person transfers, bill payment, and other services through their mobile phones.

Challenges

Despite these efforts, there are still challenges to enhancing financial inclusion in Jamaica:

  • Limited use of digital payment instruments: 23% of account holders report that they have not used their accounts in the past year.
  • Cash reliance: 65% of wage earners receive their wages in cash.
  • Lack of financial education
  • Limited penetration of non-traditional distribution channels

To address these challenges, the government has identified four main areas to focus on:

  • Cash reliance
  • Lack of financial education
  • Limited use of digital payment instruments
  • Limited penetration of non-traditional distribution channels

Sources

The analysis presented in this article draws heavily from the 2014 Global Findex survey. The complete Global Findex data and questionnaire are available at www.worldbank.org.