The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Entrepreneurial Venture Funds vice-chairman said yesterday that he was “quite pleased” with the fund’s current performance and repeated calls for the government to double its annual capital injections.

Edison Sumner, also the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation chief executive, told Tribune Business that while the government-sponsored venture capital funds has its own set of challenges, the fund has been performing quite well. “The fund has its own set of challenges but the fund has been operating quiet well actually. We have several investments or ventures on the drawing board pending approval. We are waiting for some further injection of capital to come in. The portfolio we have now is being managed quite well. We see the companies that are in the portfolio doing quite well, although a lot of them may have challenges with the economy generally speaking speaking.”

Mr Sumner added: “We are also pleased with the quality of applications we have seen recently that are being considered for approval, some of which have already been approved and are going through the process now of getting the paperwork finalised. We are pleased with the direction they are going in generally speaking.”

Mr Sumner said that increasing the fund’s capital injection by the government from $1 million annually would allow the fund to assist more local small and medium-sized businesses. “We would like to see more capital put into the fund so that we can assist more people. We are very limited in our capacity to assist a lot of companies given the criteria for the fund. I made the appeal some time ago for the government to consider perhaps topping up the fund, increasing the subvention by at least $2 million per annum so we would be able to affect the lives of many more people by investing in SMEs,” said Mr Sumner.

To date, the Bahamas Entrepreneurial Venture Fund has financed 50 to 60 entrepreneurs and young, start-up companies. The last data made public showed it had invested around $4.3 million in these businesses, via a mix of debt and equity positions.