Small Businesses awarded for excellence
DPI, Guyana, Friday, February 14, 2020.
Several small businesses have been honoured at the first Awards Reception and Dinner hosted by the Small Business Committee and the Small Business Bureau.
They included Braf’s Manufacturing, Hero Carts, The Balance, Presidential Cuts Barber Shop and Sports Bar, and Deika’s Spices.
The awardees are all registered clients of the Small Business Bureau.
Minister of Business Hon. Haimraj Rajkumar, while delivering the feature address, said that “Small businesses are very important to our country, to our society, to our communities.”
Referring to the recently commissioned business incubator in Belvedere and another soon to be launched in Lethem, the Minister noted that small businesses create employment.
“We are offering services, to startup businesses, young business entrepreneurs to have them, trained, mentored, providing a space where they can start up their business and learn as they go along, so our Government is very serious in developing small businesses.”
In his report CEO of the Bureau, Dr. Lowell Porter stated 594 grants totalling $177Million were given out from 2014 to 2018. Some 219 went to small businesses from 2018-2019.
Dr. Porter also disclosed that from June to December last year, more than 800 new persons attended the Bureau’s awareness sessions while approximately 38 came into the office daily for service and information.
He explained that a consultant’s review found that after visiting 926 small businesses, 78 percent of the clients were still in business.
“Most of these clients; they depend every day on that business because it takes care of their lives; it takes care of their families. They care about their businesses; they work hard. However, some are not equipped with sufficient information and that is what we are trying to address at the Small Business Bureau with our training,” Dr Porter said.
The Bureau is a government-funded agency which aims to provide easy access to financing and address issues that small businesses face.