The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE Small Business Development Centre’s (SBDC) executive director says it will look to expand the “community specific” model of the Over-the-Hill initiative, where 18 entrepreneurs were awarded $2,500 in grant funding.

Those awards represented the first cohort to graduate from the SBDC’s Over-the-Hill Access Accelerator programme. The grant funding came from a donation to the Over-the-Hill initiative by Bahamian investor, Mark Holowesko, on Monday night.

Davinia Blair, the SBDC’s executive director, explained: “We did a special programme for the Over-the-Hill community, and the first cohort has now graduated. They were given their $2,500 grant, which would go to vendors for the things they need for their small businesses.

“I believe the class started with 25, and those who remained helped each other along. It was a team effort to finish.” Among the businesses receiving funding were landscaping and cleaning companies, mechanics, a salon, and a media company.

“This fits right in with the overarching vision of the SBDC,” said Ms Blair. “The only difference is that it has a community-specific target because of the historic value to the country. We took the same programme, just broke it down and made it a bit easier to digest, but also a little more hands on.

“It’s probably a model we will morph to that will help communities be able to grasp the material and, afterwards, be able to get up and going quickly. We are finding on the Family Islands as well that these type of community-based models are already working because they have close-knit communities and help each other in similar ways,” said Ms Blair.

She added that the SBDC continues to accept applicants who now number over 4,000.

The SBDC is the product of a tripartite agreement between the Government, through the Ministry of Finance, University of The Bahamas (UB) and the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employer’s Confederation (BCCEC). The Centre will work to guide the development, funding, growth, and evolution of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).