Bridgetown, BARBADOS:--- Following on strong regional growth and success in the past three years, CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank has renewed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Caribbean Association of Youth Business Programmes, providing financial support and mentorship for the roll-out of micro-enterprise assistance throughout the region.
Under the terms of the MOU signed recently at CIBC FirstCaribbean's Headquarters at Warrens, St. Michael, Barbados, the Barbados Youth Business Trust will continue in its role as the lead Programme with responsibility for fund management, sharing best practices, driving the start-up of new programmes and assisting with brand quality.
Signing the MOU which runs for three years from 2011 to 2013 and which is worth
US $ 340 000 to the Caribbean Group of Youth Business Programmes, were Executive Chairman of CIBC FirstCaribbean, Mr. Michael Mansoor, and Chairman of the Barbados Youth Business Trust, Mr. David Clarke who signed on behalf of the Caribbean Association of Youth Business Programmes.
In his comments, Mr. Mansoor congratulated the BYBT for its role noting it was anticipated that the funding made available through the CIBC FirstCaribbean Comtrust Foundation would allow for increased development of micro-enterprises throughout the region.
"CIBC FirstCaribbean remains committed to providing support for this programme across the region both financially and through mentorship of these young entrepreneurs; and we look forward to deepening our relationship with BYBT and the other Trusts in the region as we work together to further develop this area of economic development that is so vital to our region's success," said Mr. Mansoor.
Expressing his sincere gratitude on behalf of the region's young entrepreneurs, Mr. Clarke said significant gains had been made since the signing of the first MOU in 2008, for which much of the credit had to go to CIBC FirstCaribbean.
"When the first MOU was signed three years ago, the accredited Trusts in the Youth Business International network were Barbados, Trinidad, Guyana, and Belize. Since signing the MOU we have been able to get the Dominica Trust accredited, the Jamaica Trust has just completed their accreditation exercise and it is expected that they will receive their accreditation very soon this year. So we have moved from having four accredited Trusts to six accredited Trusts. We had no Trusts in St. Vincent, St. Lucia or Antigua, but we now have pilot programmes running in those countries, and we hope that by end of this new MOU we have moved from six to ten accredited Trusts," Mr. Clarke said.
Noting that BYBT, which was registered in 1994, and started operations two years later, was a founding member of Youth Business International, and the third country in the world to adopt that model, Mr. Clarke said BYBT with the support of CIBC FirstCaribbean was well placed to lead in the development of the Caribbean group of youth business trusts. He said they hoped to replicate the Barbados experience in the other territories.
"The Trust in Barbados has put around 500 young people in employment in the last 10 years, who would not have had that opportunity, because we are providing business mentoring support, and providing some finance to get them operational. So there are a lot of young people who are not eligible for the banking sector, and we help them from that stage. It's a partnership where we help to make them more bankable so they can move on to the next phase of lending agencies."