BELTRAIDE Launches BEEP

Earlier today, the Office of the Prime Minister, the CARICOM Development Fund and BELTRAIDE officially launched the Belize Enterprise Empowerment Project, an initiative aimed at assisting Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises with access to affordable financing.  Outgoing Executive Director, Dr. Leroy Almendarez and Prime Minister John Briceño were on hand for the ceremony.

 

Dr. Leroy Almendarez, Executive Director, BELTRAIDE

“One of the biggest challenges faced by MSMEs is access to, and I always put in the A, affordable finance.  In this case, access to finance, finance to induce your growth, your transition through that ecosystem.  And so, the benefits here will be great because there are those who just need that inducement.  These are some of the things that the government is doing, in this case, through BELTRAIDE, for MSMEs.  And there are quite a number of other initiatives, but as we focus on BEEP now, as a matter of fact, we didn’t have the P before and so it was BEE and I think someone asked me who was going to fly.  So we added the BEEP rather than B and so with this project now, honestly, I must also say here that the government has been focusing quite a lot, in fact in BIS 2023, that’s Belize Investment Summit, we spoke about the orange economy.  Too often, the creative industry, etc… and those things that fall in there, but we spoke about the fires of the mind and those fires are orange, the intellectual property.  And so a large part of this concentration, the funds available will be for the orange economy and that is something great.  That tells you the diversification of blue, green and orange and how much focus the government places on entrepreneurial development.”

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“MSMEs contribute to more than fifty percent of our Gross Domestic Product or GDP.  My government is fully aware of the great contributions MSMEs make to our economy, stimulating local investments and diversification of our economy with a push to enhance community resilience.  All essential components that will create an environment that fosters both rural and urban development as the matrix of locally produced goods and services prevails.  The continued injection of innovation through enhanced digitization efforts must not be overlooked because this allows for even greater efficiencies in service delivered.  Today you join us to unveil the Belize Enterprise Empowerment Project, BEEP, a project developed to address one of the greatest development challenges faced by MSMEs, that is access to finance.  This initiative represents a significant shift from the original intent of the Belize Enterprise Revolving Fund, or the BRF, which utilizes a blended approach to provide much needed financial support.  The BRF methodology used a blended loan and grant approach.  This revolving aspect meant that forty percent had to be repaid as a loan with a fixed rate of four percent.  Recognizing that challenge, I wrote to the CEO of CARICOM Development Fund, Rodinald Soomer, making the case that the funds be repurposed as grants only which would stimulate greater economic activity and uptake by MSMEs.”