Small businesses poised to soar in Guyana …but laws and literacy stand in the way

THE SMALL BUSINESS BUREAU (SBB) is targeting some 700 Guyanese for specialised
training to benefit from a $350M grant currently available to back novel business initiatives in
the sector for 2021.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Lowel Porter, in an exclusive told
www.aroundtheregions.com predicts that small businesses are poised to soar across Guyana. He
said Guyanese display the appetite for owning businesses, but the low literacy rates of potential
owners and outdated laws stand in their way.
Porter’s projection of growth and difficulties awaiting the Guyanese small business sector
highlighted his presentation at the opening ceremony of a two-day training programme in
poverty-stricken, but mineral-rich Linden, capital city of Upper Demerara/Berbice (Region Ten).
The appetite for entrepreneurship was made obvious when some 200 residents registered for the
specialised programme, over-shooting the response organisers anticipated, forcing them to divide
participants into groups and run the initiative for an unplanned, extra day.
The CEO disclosed that registrants for the workshop utilised their websites and Help Desks. He
pointed out that Region Ten’s Help Desk is situated within the Mayor and Town Council’s
(MTC) office.
“Whenever persons goes into the Mayor and Town Council’s office and say look I want to start a
business and I don’t know what to do or I have a problem with my business and I don’t have a
solution for it, that persons at the help desk will take their information and send it to us and when
we realized that we have enough persons to hold a workshop we would get back in touch with
the and say can you contact these persons about a workshop that we plan holding at this time and
at this place,” he said.

“We want the people of Linden to know who are thinking of starting a business to garner
information on how to go about doing so. We intend to teach them how to start a business, how
to run a business or to keep proper records for the business and then we will talk about how we
(Small Business Bureau) will support those businesses as they go along and that means financing
your business, growing your business to that level where you can get out of being a small
business to a larger business,” the CEO explained.
But enthusiasm must be supported by enhanced literacy levels among potential small business
owners, Dr Porter said during the exclusive. He said that while several small business owners
know what they want to achieve, many of them are illiterate and lack basic understanding about
the nature of businesses. He said that there are regular training programmes by the GSBB to help
counter these deficiencies and enhance and sensitise registrants how to manage their enterprises.
This, he indicated, has seen tremendous successes among those who have secured the grant
funding.

“While this is our first major training this year, every week we have 10 persons, twice a week
face to face undergoing training done at the office. This small training is done at the office seeks
to inform and sensitise persons on what is happening and what they need to know in Business,”
Dr Porter explained.
Porter projects that the SBB will hand out more than 700 grants estimated at the tune of some
$350M which should be a boom to the local economy hurt by the vagaries of the global COVID-
19 pandemic.
“The grants that we provide ranges from $250,000.00 to $500,000.00 per person. This amount
being pumped into the economy of small businesses will certainly boost the economy while
creating more opportunities for small business owners and theirs,” the CEO said.
However, current laws are a humbug clipping the wings of small businesses poised to soar.

The SBB was established in 2010 but took four years to get going because of existing legislation
“It took four years before there was any major financing to support the programme so the pains
of developing an agency took that time,” the CEO said.
“We just want to meet every person wherever they are as we want them to learn about working
and networking wherever they are. We also want our clients to know that we are in partnership
with them, at the end of this workshop we want people to be excited about starting their own
business or growing their already started business.”
“Guyanese must value and respect their own,” Dr Porter counselled.