Minister of Small Business, Entrepreneurship and Commerce Dwight Sutherland speaking during Sunday night's service at the St. Leonard's Anglican Church.
There is a call for stronger numbers in the local credit union movement.
This from Minister of Small Business, Entrepreneurship and Commerce Dwight Sutherland as he addressed members of the congregationduring a service to celebrate the45th anniversary of the St. Leonard's Anglican Church Cooperative Credit Union.
One of the older credit unions on the island, having had its start in January of 1975 with just about 50 members, the church was happy to celebrate the milestone and Minister Sutherland said that it warmed his heart to see the progress the local credit union movement had facilitated over the years.
“In December last year while speaking at a function to celebrate the 30th anniversary of another credit union, I stressed the fact that the Credit Union movement remains one of the most inspiring examples of how working class people can come together with a shared interest and a shared vision to empower and enfranchise a reality to mutual support for each other.” he said.
Calling himself a product of the credit union movement as his grandfather gifted him a sum of money from his credit union earnings to take him through his studies at the University of the West Indies, Sutherland said that after having its origins in origins in Germany 1852, credit unions have grown to number 57 000 in 105 countries.
With the Shamrock Credit Union out of the St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in 1947 being the first in Barbados, Minister Sutherland said that the movement had a heavy foundation in the church.
“In this regard, it can be said that the credit union movement in Barbados has a Christian base and can therefore be considered to be the godfather of all financial institutions for low-income people. This is especially so when one considers the fact that Jesus came to set free and empower the down-trodden, the poor and underprivileged, and the fact that the credit union movement was established as a vehicle of financial improvement and an important means of social justice to ease the burden of low income on underprivileged people.” he said.
With Barbados boasting 210,000 members across 33 credit unions the Minister stated that the movement still had the ability to transform the social and economic status of many Barbadians and that in the latest Financial Stability Report published by the Central Bank of Barbados and Financial Services Commission, there was growth of 9.5% in credit union assets. He alsowent on to say that there was an increased confidence in the movement amongst Barbadians.
“The credit union movement is more relevant today than it ever was. Especially when one considers that deposits made on the commercial banks by individuals and businesses, now attract close to 0% interest. And they are subject to unjustifiable and unreasonably high banking fees that continue to increase.” he said.
Noting that the small business sector was the major engine of growth for the Barbados economy and has problems accessing funding from the banking sector, Sutherland highlighted some of the other avenues, inclusive of the credit unions, that small and micro business owners had to utilise to get their enterprises off the ground.
“It is for this very reason that our Government, over the years, has sought to ease the restrictions thatmicro and small businesses face accessingfinancing by introducing a number of small business funding agencies such as Enterprise Growth Fund, the Barbados agency for micro financing Fund Access and morerecently, the Barbados Trust Loan. We must now refocus our attention to schemes such as the Credit Guarantee Scheme and Collateral Registry to work to alleviate the high collateral requirements demanded by banks for micro, small and medium enterprises to access credit.” he said.
Continuing to fight the case for small and micro business persons, Sutherland made a call for there to be a locally-owned bank in Barbados once again.
“Why I am so critical of the banks is because I believe that the banks can utilise these instruments and schemes to help the average man like the credit unions. And I can see a vision with the credit unions being a major player within the banking institution in this country. The day will return when we will need a local bank in this country.” he said. (MP)