Basseterre, St. Kitts (November 29, 2015) — Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) play a pivotal role in the development of respective regional economies and to ensure that they continue to play their roles, Project Officers/Credit Analysts/Loan Officers are required to submit well analysed and documented loan applications that would reflect the five ‘C’s of credit.
The advice was given by Mr Carlton Pogson, Assistant General Manager of the Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis, at the closing ceremony, to participants of the second module of the Development Finance Institutions training programme organised by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) which came to an end on Friday November 27 at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort.
In attendance were ten participants from six of the CDB’s borrowing member countries (BMCs) in the second module of this four-week training programme which has been organised in collaboration with the Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis.
“If DFIs are to continue adding value to our economies and do what we ought to do best, it therefore means that you as our Project Officers/Credit Analysts/Loan Officers need to properly evaluate credits with solid recommendations so that management/the decision maker can make well informed decisions/approvals on submitted loan applications,” advised Mr Pogson.
He told them that the recommendations they make when clients are seeking loan funds must always be professional and always guided by the five ‘C’s of credit, the basic principles of credit lending and in that way, they cannot go wrong. The five ‘C’s, he reminded them, were Cash-flow; Collateral; Credibility; Creditworthiness; and Conditions.
The participants who came from Haiti, Bahamas, Dominica, Jamaica, Belize, and host country St. Kitts and Nevis were advised by Mr Pogson to keep in contact with the friends that they have made during the week-long training so that when confronted with new deals they could check with their colleagues who might have been exposed to similar deals and can advise on how to approach the analysis.
He informed that if one was working on a new deal in the area of agriculture, they could call Dominica who have a lot of agricultural loans to give them an idea, or alternatively if it was a new deal in tourism one could call the Bahamas who are strong in tourism and share any information or analysis that they have.
“Part of this workshop is to build networks and in credit analysis: networking goes a long way,” observed Mr Pogson. The Assistant General Manager was accompanied by Ms Danienne Brin, the Manager, Human Resource, Marketing and Product Development at the Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis, who is the local coordinator of the training programme.
The second training module, ‘Credit Appraisal with a specific focus on agricultural projects to be targeted at credit staff’, which opened on Monday November 23 was facilitated by veteran regional trainer Mr David Logan. The participants were presented with certificates of attendance by Mr Carlton Pogson.
Organiser of the CDB’s Development Finance Institutes training programme, Ms Lisa Harding, who is also the Operations Officer, Private Sector Development Unit at the Caribbean Development Bank in Barbados, while thanking the module’s facilitator Mr Logan, said that it was a very comprehensive and practical training module and noted that she was interested in hearing feedback from the participants.
Ms Harding also thanked the Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis, through its General Manager Mr Lenworth Harris, for agreeing to co-host the four-week training programme with the Caribbean Development Bank.
Following the presentation of certificates, the participants left for a tour of the island with their first stop being the head office of the Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis on Church Street in Basseterre’s CDB, then Caribelle Batik at Romney Manor, and finally the Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The third training module, ‘Enterprise Risk Management focusing on key techniques to identifying, measuring monitoring and controlling risk of all types within financial institutions and designing of appropriate frameworks’, opens on Monday November 30 in Dominica Room at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort.