The Tribune

By Neil Hartnell

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A long-standing small business advocate is making “the final push” for legislation that would counter “stagnated growth” and “keep politics out” of policies and initiatives designed to foster Bahamian entrepreneurial success.

Mark A Turnquest, founder of the 242 Small Business Association and Resource Centre, and a well-known consultant to the sector, told Tribune Business that tomorrow’s symposium at the Cancer Society, located next to ZNS, represents the final attempt in his 16-17 year drive for The Bahamas to have a Small and Medium-Sized Business (SME) Act.

Expressing optimism that there is now “the political will” for this to be done, even though he conceded it will likely not happen before the 2026 general election, he added that tomorrow’s session will mark the last effort to craft such an Act that can then be presented to the Government along with a report on his survey of SME owners.

Mr Turnquest told this newspaper that he plans to complete and present the report to the Prime Minister by May 1 next year, as he again detailed the benefits of legislation dedicated to the micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) sector - including turnover-based definitions of what such enterprises actually are.

Arguing that this would make it easier to tailor and target assistance to each segment of the SME market, he added that the draft Act would also propose the creation of oversight and steering committees featuring private sector representatives are more aware of small business needs and what such ventures require to help them stay afloat and, ultimately expand.

Mr Turnquest said these committees will also help to better co-ordinate the work of the multiple agencies that assist small businesses, such as the Small Business Development Centre, Bahamas Entrepreneurial Venture Fund, Bahamas Development Bank, Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation (BAIC, Tourism Development Corporation and others so as to prevent duplication, waste of resources and better target support to where it is needed.

And, be legislating, Mr Turnquest said policies and initiatives aimed at small businesses will have a statutory footing and protection, thus ensuring these cannot be altered “overnight” when administrations change and providing Bahamian start-ups and entrepreneurs with consistency and continuity.

“I’m closing up my career with this small business symposium on November 15,” he told Tribune Business in a recent interview. “It’s the final push. I’ve spoken to the Prime Minister, Simon Wilson [financial secretary] and Michael Halkitis [minister of economic affairs] and let them know this is the final prospectus.

“I’ve been doing this research for 17 years. This is the final physical process of people coming together to draw up the Act. People are not receptive and excited because I’ve been at it for so long - 16-17 years - and they say I’m just wasting my time because under four different administrations the Act was never legislated.

“The Prime Minister promised me, and says he’s actually interested in legislating it in the near future… I’m optimistic. I feel that the PLP has the political will this time. First of all, when I spoke to the Prime Minister, officially and unofficially, over the past four years he indicated he had motivation.”

Mr Turnquest acknowledged that the long-proposed Act will “not be legislated between now and the next election because the election is priority”. However, he pledged that his report on small business challenges, needs and opportunities, based on interviews with entrepreneurs and other research, will be completed and presented to the Government by May 1, 2026.

He added that previous efforts to pass such an Act have been stalled and derailed by the repeated changes in administration every five years. Mr Turnquest said that, under the last Christie administration from 2012 to 2017, he and others had worked on the creation of the Small and Medium-Sized Business Development Agency (SMEDA).

But then the Minnis administration was elected and subsequently created its own version of the same agency - the SBDC. “They threw the baby out with the bath water,” Mr Turnquest said, referring to the National Development Plan as well as SMEDA.

“I spoke to a lot of ministers,” he added of the Davis administration, “and a lot of them have the political will. The timing is right because the economic conditions for small businesses are thriving. The only problem is we need sustainable strategies so that if the Government changes the strategies and the policies don’t change.

“The Small Business Act, when legislated, will be a long-standing foundation for stability of economic conditions for SMEs because it will not have changed overnight. If it is not legislated, there will not be a mandate for small business decision-making.

“For the past 50 years we did not have a strong enough growth in our small business sector because, after 1997, the Government has changed every five years. Each government has its own priorities,” Mr Turnquest said. “We never had a definition of small business because there’s never a consistent perspective from a policy point of view.

“Because of that we have stagnated growth….. This is going to bring a synergy of government and non-government organisations to have one focus on one mission: Sustainable business strategies, so that when governments change it does not change the strategy because of politics. It keeps politics out of it. Politics has been destroying the small business sector for all these years. This is my final attempt. This is it.”

Mr Turnquest added that, while Barbados has had small business legislation in place since 1999, and the US from 1958, “The Bahamas is the only country without such an Act”.