Sunday, May 09, 2010
NCB Extends Single Digit Financing to the Nation’s Productive Sector
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| NCB's AGM SME, Bernadette Barrow shares the stage with Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, JC Hutchinson at the NCB F.A.R.M Loan Launch held in Junction, St. Elizabeth. |
In a move to signify its deepening commitment to spur the growth of the nation’s productive sector, National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited (NCB) has announced that it will extend the tenure of two products which offer loans at only 9% to the nation’s SME sector. “Our mission of building a better Jamaica can only be strengthened by helping to create a productive Jamaica and to play our part in creating an environment in which economic development and investment can thrive” opined NCB’s Group Managing Director, Patrick Hylton.
The NCB Nation Builder Credit Line offers companies as much as $15 million in financing with 7 years to repay. With the NCB Nation Builder Line, funds will be available to support capital expansion and working capital for start-up companies, businesses owned by women and companies in the agricultural and manufacturing sector. NCB is also offering a moratorium of up to a year on principal payments. The programme was due to have closed on April 30, 2010 and has been extended until June 30.
The NCB F.A.R.M. Loan complements an initiative from the Ministry of Agriculture to encourage the growth of onions, irish potatoes and hot peppers. The loan, which was launched in March of this year, currently offers up to $2,000,000 in financing. Farmers can repay the loans monthly or they can choose to repay the loan after they reap the crops- up to maximum of 6 months in both cases. NCB recently extended introductory period where single digit financing is available until June 30, 2010.
Chief Technical Director in the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Marc Panton recently expressed gratitude for NCB’s support of the Ministry’s F.AR.M. programme, “Let me congratulate NCB for being the first commercial bank to jump on board, NCB took the mantle and took it up strongly.”. He pointed to that fact that the Bank allocated $250 million in support of the programme as testament to the fact that the organization sees the value of agriculture.
NCB’s SME Unit, headed by Bernadette Barrow, is seeing tremendous interest in the two products and encouraging growth in the overall portfolio. “While we cannot yet begin to properly assess the NCB F.A.R.M. Loan because it is relatively new, we are encouraged by the amount of interest that has been shown in the product by farmers. We attended a forum recently where farmers actually had our newspaper ads with them and were eager to begin accessing the loans”. She continued “NCB’s Nation Builder Credit Line is growing from strength to strength and we are proud to continue playing a role in the development of the nation’s business community”. She also expressed the view that NCB’s support of the SME sector is crucial as it supports job creation and economic growth and stability for the nation.
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