The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A small business advocate is pledging to “close the deal” on legislation to advance the sector’s interests in 2024, adding: “This is my last year in pushing for this Act.”

Mark A Turnquest, the 242 Small Business Association and Resource Centre’s (SBARC) founder, told Tribune Business that his personal 14-year quest for a Bahamas Micro, Small and Medium Size Development Act (MSME Act) will be handed over to the organisation’s “new management team” to pursue if it does not happen next year.

“This is it. This is my last year in pushing for this Act,” he said. “It’s been too long now; time for them [SBARC’s management] to take it over. This is it. This is my last year. I tell you now this is it. We’re going to close on this this year and bring everybody on board.

“We now have to close the deal. I will never go away from advocacy, but I will not be doing it all myself. I first developed the framework 14 years ago, and this has to be where I reach the end of my journey. I gave it all for small businesses in this country. My whole life, since God gave me strength in my eyesight, has been to focus on the Small Business Development Act.”

Mr Turnquest, who also heads his own small business consultancy, Mark A Turnquest Consulting, told this newspaper that passing an MSME Act into statute law was vital to ensure “consistency and continuity” in government policy and strategy towards the sector and protect it from changes in administration every five years.

“The problem is that every five years there’s always been a change in government strategy, FNM and PLP, and the problem is that the small businesses suffer,” he argued. “When one government does something related to small business development, when the next government comes to power they change the strategy and policy framework.

“Because of that you don’t have any consistency. If you have consistency, then you have continuity in government policies that occur. Once we have a Small Business Development Act it would understand the needs, wants and potential of all the islands - from Abaco and Grand Bahama in the north to Inagua in the south.

“It would speak to funding where sums are earmarked for specific industries. That’s what I’m trying to tell all governments; that it’s so important to have consistency and continuity. If we keep on changing governments, and the policies and focus on MSMES, at the end of the day there will be no defined structure for it,” Mr Turnquest said.

“That’s what’s been happening for the last 15 years. I cannot keep on saying it every year. Because there is legislation no government, when it changes, can completely throw the baby out with the bath water. They have to give reasons why they have changed. You cannot change your tune every five years.”

To guard against election cycle-related disruption, Mr Turnquest called for the MSME Act to be incorporated into the National Development Plan. He argued that legislation would also help create a national definition for what is a micro, small and medium-sized business, adding that at present different banks, credit unions and others all have different interpretations. Some view $1m in annual sales as ‘small’.

The SBRC founder said the MSME Act would also help to eliminate the “duplication” and waste from having so many government agencies involved in assisting small businesses. The Small Business Development Centre (SBDC), Bahamas Development Bank, Bahamas Entrepreneurial Venture Fund and Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation (BAIC) all seem to have overlapping responsibilities and ill-defined roles.

“Nothing has worked over the past 15 years in reference to the strategy of small business organisations,” Mr Turnquest said. “Because of that there’s always been duplication. We lose too much money in resources and time.

“When you have too much duplication you have too many people doing the same thing. It’s a big problem. Everybody talks that we have $250m in small business funding, $50m per year over five years, and because we only have $50m per year we have that amount spread all over the place. We need a more focused strategy.”

Mr Turnquest, in his latest strategy paper on the MSME Act, wrote that it will enable Bahamian small business and entrepreneurs to compete globally. “It will stimulate economic growth and mitigate the negative impact of future recessions on the Bahamian economy,” he added.

“The MSME Act, from a domestic perspective, should provide the foundation on how to improve the economic conditions of The Bahamas. The MSME Act, from an international perspective, should attract foreign investors who want to partner with local entrepreneurs in fields like e-commerce, manufacturing, agriculture and information technology. These industries are tremendously underserved and underdeveloped.”

Pledging that the Act “will revitalise the entrepreneurial spirit in all islands of The Bahamas,” he added: “The MSME Act will increase the national economic value of MSMEs in The Bahamas. In addition, its purpose is to synchronise and unify the efforts of the Government, financial lending institutions, NGOs, MSMEs and other stakeholders as it relates to small business development in The Bahamas.

“Most importantly, the MSME Act will identify how local and international investors and entrepreneurs can qualify for incentive and stimulus programmes when it comes to financing and developing innovative products and services.”