Business owners, entrepreneurs learn more on funding options from Esa session |08 August 2022

Ms Fernandez from DBS giving her presentation (Photos: Kurtrine Albert)

A group of small business owners, people who are thinking of starting a small business and those who are planning to extend their businesses, on Friday attended an awareness and education session where they learned more about the different funding options financial institutions have to offer.

An initiative of Enterprise Seychelles Agency (Esa), the session held at the STC conference room brought representatives of different financial institutions like Seychelles Credit Union, Absa, MCB, DBS, Seychelles Commercial Bank, Nouvobanq, Seed Capital Grant Scheme and SNYC among others closer to the business owners and potential owners to give them more information on what they have available in terms of loans, grants and other funding schemes  to assist businesses.

In remarks to officially launch the session, the chief executive of Esa, Angelic Appoo, pointed out that access to finance has always been a constraint for businesses and thus the importance of the session.

“Our aim is to improve education and raise awareness on financial opportunities that exist, to give more details on the criteria and obligations for businesses to be able to access these finances and in return give more opportunities to start-ups and other businesses that want to  extend and grow,” said Ms Appoo.

She explained that such a session will also be a means to facilitate relations and communication between the businesses, potential entrepreneurs and the banks so they could work easier  together to explore ways to improve the conditions to access finances.

“We can say that after Covid-19, we are seeing that there is a thirst for finance to launch new and extend businesses. But we are seeing that these requests are not receiving funding and even existing businesses that want to extend are not being entertained,” CEO Appoo remarked.

She said banks sometimes deem these projects too risky and hence do not want to invest in them. The workshop will help the businesses to understand the different schemes available that they can apply for, as well as to emphasise the different criteria that need to be met.

Ms Appoo remarked that Esa plans to organise such sessions again should the need arise and if  the agency has the necessary resources to do so.

There were detailed presentations from the different financial institutions. Rana Fernandez, the head of credit at the Development Bank of Seychelles (DBS), was among the first to deliver her presentation. She gave the audience an overview of the DBS before presenting the products and services that the bank has to offer.

The participants welcomed the initiative offered by Esa to help them.

“I don’t have a business for now but I feel that the information I have received will help me to decide which financial institution to choose when I decide to start my small business,” Jeanne d’Arc Hortere, a young woman, remarked.

Sylia Ah-Time