The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas has “excelled in turning entrepreneurs off from their dreams”, a young business owner yesterday urging the Government to completely revamp all its agencies supposedly geared to business financing and support.

Calling on the Christie administration to recapitalise the Bahamas Development Bank (BDB). Mervin Sweeting, owner of Switcha, the drinks producer, said a $30-$50 million investment was necessary to produce the necessary level of new business creation.

Otherwise, unemployment would remain high, and Mr Sweeting told Tribune Business that young Bahamians were “in dire need of encouragement and a ‘window’ of opportunity” to realise their goals.

In an e-mail sent to this newspaper, Mr Sweeting likely articulated the views of many, when he wrote: “There is no hope out there for the people. No jobs, no housing, no land, no financing, no love, no nothing; just despair, poverty and prison.

“This kind of emotion is what leads to all the crime and careless attitudes. We have no respect, no dignity, no honour. The young Bahamians don’t have a future. We want our honour back. We have Pride, we are Bahamians!”

Speaking to this newspaper, the Switcha owner effectively said that most successful Bahamian entrepreneurs won through in spite of the system, not because of it.

“One thing that we’ve excelled in is turning people off from developing their goals, dreams and ideas by giving people such a hard time,” Mr Sweeting told Tribune Business.

“We’ve excelled in that unfortunately. The environment is not there. The capital is not there, and the willpower from the political elite is not there to make these things a reality, make it possible.

“On the ground, existing businesses that have been around for a long time are suffering, and there’s no opportunity for start-ups.”

With access to financing remaining the key challenge for most Bahamian entrepreneurs and small businesses, Mr Sweeting called for the BDB’s mindset, mandate and staff to undergo a radical change in addition to its recapitalising it with sufficient financing.

“You can’t give the BDB $2 million and expect them to function,” Mr Sweeting said. “If you want real development, real economic growth, businesses to get jump started and grow, the BDB not only needs to be capitalised but capitalised with human capital and the resources necessary to execute these projects.

“If they stop politicising the BDB and started to realise entrepreneurs in this country need real help and assistance to make a dent in unemployment then we will start to go somewhere and make some headway. The unemployment is just too high.”

In his e-mail to Tribune Business, Mr Sweeting added: “We’re lagging behind in terms of developing our economy, creating an environment conducive for creating start-ups.

“Financing is a major issue for most if not all small business; too much red tape, the only functioning institution is the Venture Fund....

“We cannot continue to rely on foreign banks to build our economy, because in most cases they ‘break down more than they build’.”

Calling on Prime Minister Perry Christie to “seriously think about how he’s going to develop the business community”, Mr Sweeting said that apart from providing the necessary financing, the other key aspect was the necessary support and follow-up mentoring of entrepreneurs when it came to business planning and operations.

And the Switcha owner also urged Bahamian small businesses to exploit this nation’s last source of grant funding that is made available via the European Union through the 10th European Development Fund (EDF) round.

While all other grant funding sources have largely dried up, due to the Bahamas being viewed as a ‘developed nation’ by many in the international community, Mr Sweeting said 11 million euros in financing was potentially available to Bahamian and Caribbean businesses.

Switcha had managed to access $40,000 of this sum through the Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA), which is being used to finance equipment and raw material purchases.

The beauty of grant financing is that it does not have to be repaid, and Mr Sweeting told Tribune Business: “There’s a lot of money out there, and we [in the Bahamas] don’t seem to get any....

“Forty thousand dollars is a lot of money to get back. We could get an extra container of bottles. It adds to the pot.”

Mr Sweeting said he believed a lack of awareness of the availability of EDF grant funding, plus issues with properly completing the necessary application forms, had hindered Bahamian businesses from accessing such funds.

“They need step by step help,” he added. “Because of the brain drain, a lot of the more sophisticated businessmen have left town, so the pool left is a bit thin.

“I don’t think you could find $40,000 like that anywhere. To have that opportunity, we must take advantage of it.”

Mr Sweeting urged the BDB to play the leading role in assisting Bahamian businesses and entrepreneurs to properly complete grant funding applications.