Basseterre, St. Kitts, January 26, 2023 (SKNIS): Seven small business owners received grants from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) after completing a business improvement plan on 26th January 2023.
In an interview at the closing ceremony, Therez Ambrose-Versailles, Tourism Research Officer at the Ministry of Tourism in St. Kitts said, “The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the Caribbean Development Bank, the Frankfurt School of Business and Finance Management, as well as the University of the West Indies, came together in 2021 to devise a programme that is designed to help small businesses recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The programme was virtual and it aided the stakeholders in retooling themselves in a way that allowed them to maneuver the new era since the inception of the pandemic said Mrs. Ambrose-Versailles.
She stated also that “This time around we have the second cohort receiving their memorandum of understanding and basically it is a document that outlines what their responsibilities are, the responsibilities of the Ministry of Tourism, and what they should do once they get the finance to improve their business.”
“What is unique about this cohort is that when they signed up, they signed up with the understanding that they were not supposed to receive a grant but seeing the potential of the group, the UNDP group decided to petition the Caribbean Development Bank and they procured some funds for them amounting to $31,000XCD which was distributed among the recipients,” said Mrs. Ambrose-Versailles.
Recipients of the grant were Carol Clarke from Essence of Delight, Laurell Claxton from Claxton Management Services, Azmon Thomas from Azz Solutions, Kadijah Williams, Nakida Arthurton of Nik Naks Skincare, Otis Jeffers of the Produce Delight: Conscious Farming and Shobina Prince of Naive Radiance.