THE EDITOR, Sir:I HAVE been reading with interest as Mr. Kingsley Thomas, Dr. Wesley Hughes, Dr. Peter Phillips, Dr. Omar Davies and many others have all been stating recently that the engine of growth for any country is to get the people more involved in wealth creation. I am very happy to see so many people identifying 'what needs to be done.'
I want to personally thank the Bank of Nova Scotia Jamaica Limited (BNSJ), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and Kingston Restoration Company (KRC) for their intuitiveness in identifying this need three years ago and coming together in their own 'partnership for progress' and starting Micro Enterprise Financing Limited (MEFL), which is located at 12 Duke Street, Kingston.
The main objective of this company is to target low income micro entrepreneurs in the inner-city areas of Kingston and St. Andrew, to provide them with loans without the burdensome requirement of collateral, business and personal development training and saving facilities (clients are allowed to open savings accounts at BNSJ with no opening balance, where the first deposit is made from income earned, after receiving the loan proceeds). The programme will be expanding to other urban and rural communities in the near future.
The company started lending in November 2002 with four clients. Today, we have over one thousand one hundred (1100) clients, with a repayment rate in excess of 93%. Over the two years of lending, we have disbursed loans in excess of J$47 million dollars.
I want to also thank Mr. Owen James and the All Media Services team, who, after reading our annual report for 2004 made contact and did a feature on MEFL on "The Business Day" Programme aired on Sunday, January 16, 2004. As a result of this broadcast, we have had a tremendous influx of potential "poor Jamaicans" who are involved in their own micro and small businesses, trying to create their own wealth, applying for loans.
God bless Jamaica and let's all move forward in 'partnership for more progress.'
I am, etc.,
DEBRA E. S. WILLIAMS
Executive Director
