Young entrepreneurs to get PRYME support

Young entrepreneurs in St Vincent and the Grenadines are set to benefit this year from $2 million worth of support from the government to help build their businesses.

This support comes in the form of the Promotion of Youth Micro-enterprises (PRYME), a programme that will be implemented by the Ministry of Economic Planning.

“Youth-run micro-enterprises face a number of challenges to growth, including capital constraints, inadequate skills, and insufficient discipline,” finance minister Camillo Gonsalves said in his 2020 Budget address earlier this month.

Gonsalves said that the PRYME programme “will complement existing entrepreneurial-support initiatives by identifying promising micro-enterprises and start-ups that could benefit from appropriate injections of financial or managerial capital”.

The finance minister added that the programme is expected to impact more than 200 young entrepreneurs in 2020 with grants between $3000 and $40,000.

Potential entrepreneurs to benefit from the programme will be screened and guided by the Centre for Enterprise Development (CED) and Invest SVG.

They will also be eligible to occupy space in one of three pilot PRYME Community Enterprise Zones, which are small retail spaces that will be located in various communities nationwide.

“However, a PRYME grant is not an unconditional giveaway. Clients will have to meet various preconditions or ongoing reporting obligations, based on the type of business and size of grant. At a minimum, all clients will have to successfully complete basic training in bookkeeping and sound financial management,” Gonsalves said.

He also noted that recipients of larger grants will have to complete an approved business plan, allow for scrutiny of their accounts by PRYME officials and have their grants awarded in stages, with later stages contingent upon the achievement of agreed prior actions and targets.