by Linda Straker
- Support reformatted to give those who will benefit a hand up, instead of a handout
- Grants and loan funding provided by CDB and Central Government
- Funds for all qualifying applicants disbursed between September and December 2022
The Dickon Mitchell-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration is continuing the Covid-19 Economic Stimulus Support (CESS) Package begun in 2020 by the then Dr Keith Mitchell-led New National Party (NNP) administration. CESS is to assist the business community and individuals negatively impacted by Covid-19 regulations and measures.
Over EC$20 million is the targeted amount that the Government of Grenada is projecting to disburse through grants and loans to individuals, owners, and operators of micro, small and medium businesses in the third phase.
Andy Williams, Minister for Mobilisation, Implementation and Transformation, said that the third phase of the support is reformatted. “We met and decided to develop the programme in a way that it will be a hand up and not a handout, where we can help with capital injection and so to help businesses to get back on their feet.” Williams became a government minister following the 23 June General Elections.
“This programme will really help businesses to help themselves with regards to capital injections and to make it make sense to them, not just something to get them going for one month but to get them going throughout,” he said during a government news conference on Tuesday, 6 September 2022.
Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell explained that the third phase will provide EC$3.1 million to the Support for Empowerment Education and Development (SEED) programme in the Ministry of Social Development. EC$2.2 million will be provided for the temporary unemployment benefit aspect of the stimulus package. EC$30,000 in loans per business, will be provided to an unlimited number of micro, small and medium-sized businesses in the formal and informal sectors. “We will be targeting beneficiaries who were negatively impacted by Covid-19, particularly in the productive sector, so we are including farmers, agro-processors, fishermen, fisherwomen, and persons in the cottage industry. We are targeting persons who already have a small business and they need some capital injection as well as persons who could have lost their jobs because of Covid-19 and wish to start their small, micro or medium size business.”
The aim is to have the funds for all qualifying applicants disbursed between September and December 2022. The support programme is a mixture of grants and loan funding provided by the Caribbean Development Bank and the Central Government.
In mid-2021, the Inter-American Development Bank through the CDB agreed to provide Grenada with a soft loan of US$8.95 million for the country to use as a stimulus package for people who the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has marginalised. That soft loan is at a variable interest rate of about 2.06% with a 5-year grace period and a repayment period of more than 20 years. Permanent Secretary Mike Sylvester said there is currently a balance of EC$12 million from that money, while there is approximately EC$9 million as loans for small businesses.