Countries
Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and Dominica
Local Project Partners
St. Lucia:
1NB, BELfund, BOSL, SBDC, COC;
St. Vincent and the Grenadines:
Centre for Enterprise Development, GECCU;
Grenada:
GCIC, GCB, GIDC;
Dominica:
DAIC, NBD
German Partners
Sparkasse zu Lübeck
Donator
German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Duration
01.04.2016 - 30.06.2024
The Eastern Caribbean Monetary Union consists of a total of eight island states that are small, liberal, and vulnerable to the business cycles of neighboring developed economies, particularly the United States. One of the biggest challenges in the region is access to financial services for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
The project objective is to create demand-driven, efficient, and sustainable access to financial services for MSMEs while improving the economic literacy of MSMEs in the Eastern Caribbean Monetary Union (supply and demand side).
Local banks will be strengthened to increase their broad impact, offer increasingly demand-driven products, and improve the service culture for MSMEs. Furthermore, the basic entrepreneurial education of MSMEs is to be improved.
Project Tasks
- Needs analysis of MSMEs concerning financial services
- Analysis of the MSME related business activities of the participating banks as well as target group-oriented training measures
- Establishing an MSME competence center with the partner banks
- Development and adaptation of financial products and services for MSMEs
- Implementation of financial and entrepreneurial literacy measures (e.g. business plan preparation courses, Micro Business Game etc.)
- Selection and training of local trainers
