Nassau,The Bahamas - The Access Accelerator Small Business Development Centre’s (SBDC) new board will continue to ensure that micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) continue to have what they need to operate amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the board’s Chairman Lorne Basden said yesterday.

The new board was introduced during a press conference at the Ministry of Finance yesterday, where Basden contended that the members will hit the ground running. “The immediate focus of the board is to ensure that in this pandemic and post-pandemic environment, we are meeting the needs of businesses that are even more reliant on the services, projects and portfolios that the Small Business Development Centre has to offer,” said Basden. “The immediate role of the board will be to put all the policies in place to ensure that we have maximum exposure to small and medium-sized businesses. We look forward to building on the previous board and also providing some of our own unique perspectives.” The new board also includes Deputy Chairman Een Colebrooke and board members Nolan Carey, Mark Turnquest, Jayel Gibson, Todd Martin, Creighton Moxey, James Julmis, Dr. Marlo Murphy-Braynen, Dr. Randy Forbes, Antoinette Russel and Charnette Thompson. During the press conference, Minister of Economic Affairs Michael Halkitis called the new board “diverse, young and youthful” and contended that its members give it strength and flexibility. He urged them to “go the extra mile” to reach out to the most underserved in the country’s communities in order to ensure that the ideas and creativity within those communities do not go unrefined. SBDC Executive Director Davinia Bain said during the press conference that the facility supported almost 2,000 entrepreneurs via $70 million in financial assistance from both governmental and international sources. She explained that the SBDC will imminently launch funding programs specifically for technology and the youth. The SBDC moved to new headquarters at the old Phil’s food store on Gladstone Road last year, the first phase of which officially opened late last year. According to Bain, the money for the subsequent phases of the property could be included in the government’s 2022/2023 budget cycle. Written By: Chester Robards | www.thenassauguardian.com

  Bahamian women entrepreneurs should get off the venture capital sidelines and jump into the investment pool in a big way. Davinia Bain, Executive Director of the Access Accelerator Small Business Development Centre, made the proposal while speaking on a panel at the first-ever Women Economic Forum-Caribbean (WEF-Caribe), hosted in Puerto Rico over the past two days.  The Women Economic Forum (WEF) is an international platform that connects more than 250,000 attendees in 200 countries. The WEF-Caribe is expected to attract more than 30,000 virtual attendees from the region and the world.  Addressing the panel discussion on “Where are the women investors that impact entrepreneurship in the region?” Ms. Bain said the research showed that women starting a business stand a great chance of success, save for one major obstacle: access to capital. She noted that in 2018, $130 billion in venture capital funding changed hands: male founders received almost 98 per cent of that money, with female founders receiving only 2.2 per cent of that total funding.  Bain’s fellow panelists included Shila Nieves, Founder, Managing Partner of Zane Venture Fund, and Shirley McPhaul of the Puerto Rico Science, Technology & Research Trust. Nieves’ mission is to champion underrepresented business founders, while McPhaul aims to contribute to the growth of the digital creative industries in Puerto Rico and to help those who want to invest in cryptocurrencies to onboard and participate in decentralized applications, especially to members of vulnerable communities such as women and racial minorities. Ms. Bain encouraged women to broaden their scope when considering what to invest in. She argued that no individual is predisposed by their gender to invest in or involve themselves in particular industries and recalled the earliest days of the Access Accelerator as evidence to support the argument. “From an organizational point of view, it was important to us not to pigeonhole ourselves into any specific thesis. Initially, it was something very new we were doing in the country. We needed to help as many people as quickly as possible in as many industries as possible, simply to bring to the fore the entrepreneurial spirit, which we knew was always here in The Bahamas. We’ve always been very entrepreneurial, but the support hasn’t really been there. The finances and investment, the training and advisory services – that part of it has been missing. So we didn’t start off by having these focal points for investment (like target industries). However, three years into it, now, we are excited to begin to focus on certain points. A lot of it is connected to the Sustainable Development Goals. There’s definitely a focus on technology, and there’s a focus on fishing and farming.” She added, “COVID-19 has brought a lot to light in The Bahamas during the period of time when we were going through shutdowns, there was a lot of concern about our vulnerability as a small island nation to import simple things like food. As an organization, it’s important for us to encourage more entrepreneurs – male and female – to focus on certain types of industries.  That said, when you’re trying to match the gender of an entrepreneur and certain industries, I think you may be riding a line that could be a little dangerous. I don’t think there’s any industry that’s predisposed for a particular gender; however, I want to encourage women to look at some of the industries that we haven’t had a foothold in.” Other panels feature a diverse array of speakers, including the vice president of Costa Rica, the president of Georgia Institute of Technology, the Jamaican Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, the Minister of Women from the Dominican Republic, the Editor in Chief at the Arab Journal of Quality in Education (AJQE) Jordan and others. Some of the other panels also featured Bahamian panelists, including the Bahamas Country Managing Partner of Ernst & Young, Michele Thompson, and Director at Sumner Strategic Partners, Edison Sumner. The Forum – endorsed by The United Nations Women and the U.S. Agency for International Development – is intended to promote economic inclusivity throughout the Caribbean and create synergies between governments, the private sector, and civil society to build a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive region. 

  Davinia Bain, Executive Director of the Access Accelerator Small Business Development Centre, will speak on a panel at the first-ever Women Economic Forum-Caribbean, set for Puerto Rico this week. The Women Economic Forum (WEF) is an international platform that connects more than 250,000 attendees in 200 countries, and the WEF-Caribbean is expected to attract more than 30,000 virtual attendees from the region and the world.