Above: Montego Bay

By the Caribbean Journal staff

A joint fund from the Development Bank of Jamaica and PetroCaribe is offering a loan facility for small businesses in Jamaica to green their energy operations, and Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell is urging them to do so.

The fund allows small and medium-sized enterprises to access loans of up to J$30 million ($333,716 USD) at a rate of 7.5 percent to retrofit their operations for energy efficiency, conservation and green energy.

“I want to commend the DBJ for this facility,” Paulwell said at the DBJ’s GreenBiz Energy Fair last week in New Kingston. “I don’t think in the recent history of our country there has been such a facility available for businesses.”

The programme encourages businesses to refurbish their facilities with green energy solutions like solar water heaters and solar panels.

But there has thus far been a low take-up rate of the loan since it was introduced, the Minister said.

In order to address that, the fund has now provided guarantees on the loans of up to J$10 million or 80 percent of the loan, according to Milverton Reynolds, managing director of the DBJ.

He said he hoped that would increase demand for the facility, which can be accessed through DBJ-approved institutions including commercial banks, merchant banks, credit unions and other institutions.

The DBJ is already working with the Inter-American Development Bank on a programme to encourage energy conservation among SMEs in the country.

“I have to say to my business friends, some of us are justifiably risk averse, but we have to shed that clothing,” he said. “The future for Jamaica is to grow this economy, to invest in the economy.”