Access to finance is and has always been the vulnerable spot of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). COVID-19 has increased this challenge as these small enterprises hit by zero cash flow due to the national lockdowns, must now identify the funding necessary to finance capital expenditure and working capital requirements for resuming business, post COVID-19.

The National Export Strategy of Saint Lucia identified Access to Finance as one of the key areas to be addressed to allow companies to improve their export capacity, citing it as “one of the most important constraints on MSME growth world-wide”. The Strategy was launched on February 18, 2020 and identifies several activities to address Access to Finance deficiencies of MSMEs. One such activity is “To improve the ability of SMEs to apply for loans.”

As part of the implementation of the National Export Strategy, Export Saint Lucia will partner with the National Television Network (NTN) to raise awareness of opportunities for finance available to MSMEs from local financial institutions, and to build capacity of MSMEs to access these opportunities by educating on the requirements for securing these.

On Friday, July 3, Export Saint Lucia and the National Television Network (NTN) will host a panel discussion entitled Finance and Technical Assistance for MSMEs from 11 a.m. -12 p.m. at the NTN studios.