Local businesses thrive on Commonwealth loans

Pine tarts, cheese rolls, coconut cake - known locally as salara - and Guyana’s famous black cake, consisting of rum and fruit, are just a few of the delicacies supplied at Paul Lennard’s bakery.

Set up over three years ago in Alness, a buzzing village in the heart of the County of Berbice on Guyana’s east coast, his business caters for a wide variety of local customers.

Mr Lennard is a beneficiary of the Commonwealth Youth Credit Initiative, which offers loans, training, education and business support to entrepreneurs.

Before establishing his bakery business, Mr Lennard, now 39, would ride around local villages on his bicycle selling ‘popsicles’ to the local community. During this time he admits that although he knew he was turning over a small profit, he never understood how much it cost to make one of these ice-lollies.

Since then his business knowledge has developed through training he received on how to effectively operate a business, which was facilitated by the Commonwealth initiative.

“I now feel more well-rounded and can confidently sit down and write out a business plan. I am able to market what the community wants,” he says.

Loan acts as springboard

His bakery shop was given an initial loan of £350, which was paid back within a year, followed by a further £450 that he fully repaid in 18 months.

Mr Lennard now wants to set up a small business with a friend, Frank Johnson, in poultry farming. Mr Johnson, a 31-year-old rice and cash-crop farmer who specialises in growing peas, cabbage and eggplant, also received a Commonwealth loan, which boosted his business.

He explains that the revenue they have both built up from their own respective businesses can now act as a springboard for them to establish this new venture.

“I was unable to apply for a loan with a bank because you have to have a certain amount of assets, like a tractor or own your home, which I didn’t have,” Mr Johnson recalls, adding: “With the loan [from the Commonwealth] I am now able to compete with other local farmers and also other regions in Guyana.”

A cut above the rest

In Rose Hall Town, which neighbours Black Bush Polder where Mr Johnson’s farm is based, Wynette Griffith, 38, also received a loan and training for her beauty salon, which offers haircuts, manicures and facials.

When she set up her small business in 1993, Ms Griffith found it “tough” to run until she received a loan six years later from the initiative. She says: “When I took the loan I was able to focus on attracting the salon to more customers.”

Now Ms Griffith believes that she has successfully built up her business “to the point where I don’t need to search out customers, as more than enough walk through the doors.”

The Commonwealth initiative was piloted in Guyana, India, Solomon Islands and Zambia, and has since been replicated in a further 12 countries. In India alone, more than 1,000 enterprises have been set up.

Secretariat Links:

• Commonwealth Youth Programme
• Country Profile: Guyana