Over $100K for National Business Bureau’s return

More than $100,000 has been put towards the National Business Bureau (NBB) for next year‘s budget, Deputy Premier Lorna Smith disclosed while speaking in the House of Assembly recently.

The NBB previously served as an agency within the Trade Department that provided financial and technical support to existing businesses and to persons who had a business idea that needed assistance.

Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley announced in the budget speech weeks ago that the burea would return to assist small businesses to employ themselves and others and deliver goods and services successfully.

Smith, in the meantime, posited that the allocation would allow the ministry to reestablish the National Business Bureau on a sound footing to provide comprehensive support and incentives for business growth and expansion.

The Deputy Premier said she hoped Premier Wheatley would find it possible to increase the allocation during the first Schedule of Additional Provisions (SAP). Still, she noted that another $100,000 was placed in another section of the budget under assistance grants.

Smith said the government plans to establish a policy for grants for the year 2024 and will likely couple this with the $100,000 already set aside for the NBB.

“That’s how we are going to be governed in terms of disbursing those funds,” Smith said. “So in essence, we see ourselves as having $200,000 for business development.”

Sixth District Representative Myron Walwyn previously accused the government of trespassing on the common sense of residents after noting that just $27,000 had been set aside in the budget for the NBB’s return.