Due to a high number of submissions, 20 businesses instead of 12 will soon benefit from the Small Business Bureau’s (SBBs) Green Business Technology Fund, walking away with $1 million each.
Speaking to Village Voice Guyana on Tuesday, SBB’s Marketing Officer, Shamane Headley said that submissions are still before the judges. While the fund had been earmarked for only 12 businesses, the Bureau recently increased its this in the interest of a large number of submissions. The judges are currently making their selections based on innovation, strategy and potential growth to a sustainable business enterprise. The official announcement will be made this month.
The judges are made up of persons from the business and professional community and they will peruse the proposals which have each been compiled in 20 pages or less. Added to this, all applicants are required to make an in-person pitch before the judges selling their business idea as worthy of financial support.
The Green Technology Fund supports new ideas which present a solution to a challenge or need; an innovation which improves a product or the delivery of a service. The solution must include the use of either: a software application, development of a prototype or and involve the use of green energy. The businesses involved range from start-up to existing business but must be considered as a ‘small business’ as defined by the Small Business Act of 2004.
The SSB is a semi-autonomous agency established under the Ministry of Business, based on the Small Business Act of 2004. It was established in 2010, and became operational in 2013 with funding from the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF), for the ‘Micro and Small Enterprise Development (MSED Programme).
