SMALL businesses in Barbados account for the bulk of jobs in the local private sector. This is according to Lynette Holder, CEO of the Barbados Small Business Association.
Speaking at a function yesterday to officially launch Small Business Week 2016, Holder said that there are approximately 9 600 small businesses operating in Barbados, and of which 96 per cent are micro, small and medium sized enterprises.
She said that the information, which came out of a survey done by the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, also shows that small businesses account for just over 60 per cent of the employment across the local private sector.
When employment in the public service is considered, the share of small businesses to overall employment in Barbados is 45 per cent.
Holder said that full details of the survey will be divulged at a forum which the association will be hosting during Small Business Week, which runs from September 18-24, 2016.
“Those are two pieces of data I will share here,” she said at the function held at the SBA office at the Harbour industrial park.
She said that the results from the survey demonstrate the tremendous contribution which the sector continues to make in Barbados.
“So that when the SBA stands up and said, look, we need to have these kinds of policies and legislative improvements, we are doing so against the backdrop of the valuable contribution that this sector continues to make to the economy,” the CEO said.
According to her, the Association has been of the view that this sector needs to have statistical and quantitative information to verify what has been said about small businesses.
She said that unlike some of the other segments in the private sector, like for example, hotels and international business who can point to the economic contribution to the economy, for a while the small business practitioners have not been able to do the same.
The survey has changed that, she added.