Many members are in need of liquidity support to remain viable, said Blossom O’Meally-Nelson, chairman of the Jamaica Association for Microfinancing (JAMFIN).
O’Meally-Nelson told The Gleaner that JAMFIN has been working with the Caribbean Microfinance Association to facilitate webinars that would help struggling businesses.
What the microfinance institutions have had to do, O’Meally-Nelson said, is to hold back on the issuance of new loans.
According to the JAMFIN chairman, many microlending agencies, financed through the EXIM Bank and the Development Bank of Jamaica, have had to ask for moratoriums, but there is generally a shortage of liquidity.
JAMFIN is reportedly working with the Development Bank of Jamaica to organise a pool of funds “separate and apart from the normal wholesale loan”, said O’Meally-Nelson.
