Grant: SBDC helped retain more than 4,000 jobs in economy

More than 4,000 jobs were retained during this COVID-19 period through the Small Business Development Centre (SBDC) Business Continuity Programme, with another approximately 1,500 jobs created through the Access Accelerator, SBDC Executive Director Davinia Grant revealed yesterday.

As at end of January, just under $42 million was disbursed through the SBDC, approximately $6 million representing grants and the remaining $36 million representing loans, Grant said.

Specifically, there were 574 companies that benefited from the government’s Business Continuity Program, which Grant said represented more than 4,000 employees who were able to keep their jobs.

“I think you’d be surprised by not just the quantity of businesses but which businesses benefited. There were a number of businesses that really needed assistance and were really grateful for it and have already started repaying,” she said while appearing as a guest on Guardian Radio talk show “The Revolution”.

“So, even in this depressed economy people have shown their appreciation for a shot in the arm and have been proactively seeking out their respective financial institutions, to make sure they’re okay with when their first repayment dates are; and some people have started paying off in full already. So we’re very proud of the level of gratitude people have shown by starting a faithful process of repayment.”

Grant said about $11 million has been distributed through the SBDC’s Access Accelerator program, which provided micro loans to about 470 businesses.

She said that represents on average three to four jobs per business.

“The guaranteed loans that have actually been disbursed are about $11 million between our mainstream program and the disaster relief program. That doesn’t include the Business Continuity Program, which were not guaranteed loans, they were just straight loans from the government and the SBDC to the business community,” Grant said.

“Most of our clients are small businesses and you’re talking anywhere from zero to five jobs on average. Some of them are five to 20 and very few between 20 and 30 or 35. Our maximum is 50. So, in many cases you’re talking about businesses that have one or three or four employees. So if you’re talking about five to six hundred people served, times on average three to four persons, that’s really what you’re looking at in terms of the employees supported by the program.”

The SBDC is also in the process of finalizing its annual report, which Grant said would provide more details on the economic impact of the government’s Hurricane Dorian and COVID-19 business relief programs.

“Our second annual report, the audit is 99 percent done. The text is ready to go. So within the next couple of weeks we will publish the second annual report and each annual report has these types of economic impact numbers. And that specific number for the mainstream program we will be able to give you,” she said.

Last month, Grant told the Rotary Club of South East Nassau that some businesses that have benefited from the business relief programs were at risk of defaulting on their loans.

Asked about the success rate of businesses that have received funding though the SBDC, Grant said as long as they are surviving she considers it a success.

“I want to first make sure we have an appreciation that we have quite a number of companies that one, were affected by Dorian and two, affected by COVID-19; and while we tend to think that only Grand Bahama and Abaco were economically affected, other companies in The Bahamas because of what happened in those two economics had some level of contraction. And then right on the back of that you had COVID-19,” she said.

“That said, the lion share of clients have been able to remain in business, been able to reopen once the lockdowns changed. The environment with the lockdowns is very different now and we’re seeing a resurgence of activity in their businesses. So for me being able to survive those shocks is definitely something I would call a success.

“In addition to all of that we’ve now started several standalone grants. The standalone grants have attracted a lot of attention. They’re up to $5,000 throughout the country. There are 10 or 11 islands that have attracted funding in the first and second rounds and we expect even more in this third round. This is where you’re seeing a lot of innovation where, this is where you’re seeing persons who may have had an interesting business but a lot of cases there are lots of people with dormant business licenses or they are getting brand new business licenses.”

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