Skerrit Announces $27 Million Loan for Businesses; Dominicans Want Palliatives

Barbara 22nd March, 2021

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PM Roosevelt Skerrit has announced a $27 million loan facility for small businesses in the country, but dissenting voices in the opposition and within the DLP said they prefer financial palliatives to counter the negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic on businesses and families.

Skerrit, who also doubles as the finance minister, said the $27 million loan for small and medium businesses is in fulfillment of a 2020 budget promise to help out commercial enterprises impacted by the pandemic.

However, the UWP and other opposition parties said many countries around the world gave stimulus packages to help out citizens and businesses affected by the pandemic, and that nothing stops Dominica from doing the same.

Many people said they are already in massive debts and unable to service existing business loans, and that providing another loan facility instead of stimulus package is adding salt to their injuries. Many dissenting voices said they had been demanding for financial palliatives since March 2020 but the government turned deaf ears and chose loans whose debts they cannot service.

UWP member Glenroy Cuffy said a $27 million AID Bank loan for businesses is not what the country needs at this time given the existing debt burden on the people, but a stimulus package that will alleviate the losses of the people. He also expressed concerns that even if the loan were to be processed, the procedure will be shrouded in politicization to the detriment of the people.

According to Cuffy, the sum of $18 million was facilitated by the government to help out farmers sometime ago, but the distribution of the funds became politicized and the process ended up destroyed.

However, DFP executive member Michael Astaphan said the current government must be transparent and completely honest in the distribution of the loans so that no eligible business would be side-tracked in accessing the loans.