Over 200 small businesses applied for grants

| 19/05/2020 | 30 Comments
Cayman News Service
Minister Joey Hew at Friday’s press briefing

(CNS): Giving an update on efforts by the Cayman Islands Business Development Centre to help local businesses get through current challenges, Commerce Minister Joey said last week that, as of Wednesday afternoon, 13 May, they had received 219 applications under the grants programme, which is designed for small and micro businesses to help them convert to a model that can survive under the new local economy.

Hew said that of those 219 applications, 205 had been process and 129 submitted to be paid. He said that 53 more were submitted last Friday for payment and 14 applications were not qualified. (See $9M in grants and $5M in loans for small business)

The other programme to help local businesses survive offers loans through the Cayman Islands Development Bank. This is restricted to 100% Caymanian-owned companies and they received 32 applications, all of which have been reviewed, and 21 submitted to the CIDB for final credit checks and processing, Hew said.

The minister said that interest in the programmes was initially very strong but but that diminished after the pension withdrawal opportunities were announced, and the belief is that many people decided to access their pensions instead of taking a loan or a grant.

He said that one of the hurdles they faced was not being able to have face to face meetings and physically assist people with the application process. It was therefore taking a little longer and “was a little more frustrating” taking applications by phone or email where they could not video conference.

Another challenge they had faced was processing applications by people who did not have a trade and business licence but were operating under other laws or who had exemptions from the T&B law, such as people with cottage industry businesses. However, the minister said he had issued a directive last Monday, 11 May, that all of those businesses would qualify for the grants application.

He said they were trying to make it as easy as possible to apply, that they were “finding our rhythm” and had “worked out all the kinks” with getting out the payments.

Hew said that there had been huge interest from business owners for other forms of assistance by the Business Development Centre, especially for the webinars and training sessions. Each of the webinars have had well over 250 participants, he noted.

The minister took the opportunity to thank the team at the Business Centre, who he said had been working very hard for very long hours.


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Category: Business, Small Business

Comments (30)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Stinks to high heaven that only 100% Caymanian owned businesses are eligible. We are 60/40, but my staff is 100% Caymanian, I think that should count for something.

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    • Anonymous says:

      This government is a bad joke. They knew few if any would qualify for these so called loans. Just a PR scam. Useless.

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  2. Anonymous says:

    No Weed, No vote !

  3. Anonymous says:

    Lipstick on a pig..

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  4. Anonymous says:

    anti-shutdown lawsuits are popping up in the US

    They essentially argue that by destroying their economic viability, the state governments have violated the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which requires just compensation when private property is taken for public use. The suits may not prevail; but they raise questions that should not be ignored.

    “The plaintiffs might lose every lawsuit. But it should be at least demanded that the states provide persuasive rationales for the seemingly arbitrary distinctions they are drawing.

    The Takings Clause should never be transformed into a weapon to prevent the government from taking necessary measures to protect public health. But proof of necessity should require more than a governor’s say-so.”

    The proof of necessity should require more than a Premier’s say-so!

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    • Anonymous says:

      A criminal action, but fearfully acceded to.

    • Anonymous says:

      If this was America, maybe. This is not America. If we were there we would have a $1200 stimulus check for everyone, unemployment checks rolling in, forgivable small business loans, and a chance. What we have here is bible readings, half dressed politicians and a Premier who makes Nancy Pelosi look reasonable.

  5. Anonymous says:

    And to think the gov blew $9m+ on promoting the never-to-be-in-a-million-years port fiasco. A load of assistance to be handed out there.

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  6. Anonymous says:

    It is important that no money be given to businesses that are not up to date with their pension and healthcare contributions. It is also critical that any business given a loan or grant attend business management and customer service training as my experience has been that most don’t understand the basics of proper customer service.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Ha! You think they check anything or care? This place thrives on ineptness.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Right, because when the shit hit the fan in March I chose to continue paying my staff rather then fall a month behind on pension. Call my staff, ask which they would rather have. Mismanaged pension, or the ability to pay their rent.

  7. Anonymous says:

    Would love to see the new business models that can survive. Charge $500 a head to take 2 people to stingray city. Charge $127 per cheeseburger in order to pay the bills at a 100 seat restaurant with only 10 people in it. Perhaps government will have to revisit their model as well. Increase duty on imports to about 60% to cover all the shortfalls that are coming…

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    • Anonymous says:

      You’d be surprised how many were nimble and adaptive enough to respond to the pressing void in responsive food delivery and are now doing just that.

    • Anonymous says:

      Yes, visitors will pay for an exclusive enjoyable experience. What they don’t like is when they pay for a private 6 person charter to the sandbar and they get there and there are 4 behemoth triple decker boats dumping 400 cruise ship passengers onto the sandbar that have each paid $20 to be there.

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  8. Anonymous says:

    many small to medium sized business also need assistance but do not ‘qualify’ because their revenue is above the set limit or they don’t have the right number of employees. they don’t need to change their business plan or ‘retrain’ for god’s sake – they just need a loan or a grant to help them stay afloat… no help for them though. Seems that CIG would rather they go out of business, and have their employees – both Caymanians and WP holders out of a job.

    I was a ppm supporter – but honestly this programe is a joke.

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    • Anonymous says:

      CIDB, will provide secured business loans of KYD$20-50k, app on their website. That should be enough for a month or two of payroll and rent. Other banks have corporate finance teams that will look at bigger loans. If you have a tourism business model, put an investor kit together and shop for some new local equity partners…or admit defeat and shut it down. It would be good if there was a centralized website for those seeking fresh capital. There are lots of people here that might throw-in for a giggle.

    • Anonymous says:

      #JOEYWHO is a complete disaster in everything he says and does.
      God help the PPM and Cayman if he ever becomes Premier

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      • Anonymous says:

        If Joey just did something about THE DUMP in his area he would get my vote.

        However, NOTHING. Why?

  9. Anonymous says:

    CNS – Can you find out how much money has been sent out the door? It’s a great theory but the reality is something else

    CNS: Yes, we will certainly be returning to this.

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    • Anonymous says:

      ……remember the so-called “Nation Building Fund” and before that the charitable donations to rebuild Cayman after Ivan?

      …….no paper trails, no governance, no proper processes or procedures, no oversight, no independent objectivity, no/inadequate/”in complete” audits…..we can all see it now…just another damning Auditor General’s report waiting to be published, filed and left to gather dust…and wait for it…YET AGAIN, nothing will happen, no accountability and no one will loose their jobs ….but rather, a lucky few might get early retirement (and with full entitlements) and a golden parachute…..

      SO SAD and SOOOOOO predictable….we’ll be reading about this in the years to come…..

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    • Anonymous says:

      KYD$14.5mln was the “life support” number earmarked for small business assistance in Compass on April 6th, which included KYD$5mln of soft loans, and KYD$9mln of grants for up to 3000 small-micro businesses. It sounds like we are a long way off from assisting 3000…

  10. Anonymous says:

    It seems pretty minimal considering the huge “work permits for whomever can pay” surpluses we’ve had during this government’s administration. So you sold our jobs Aldart..where’s the money?

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  11. SMH says:

    The COVID crisis is real but Joey wants business owners to go back to school to learn business management skills in order to get financial support from government.

    It is an insult but the joke joke is he does not have any qualifications either but is in charge of Cayman’s economic recovery and Commerce Ministry. SMH

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  12. Anonymous says:

    The recovery program rolled out is another joke brought to you by Joey Who.

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  13. Anonymous says:

    Textbook case on how not to administer an emergency business relief program.

    Some businesses found themselves under water not because they didn’t know to run a business or needed training, it was because of a global pandemic and a sudden closing of the border which killed tourism almost overnight.

    The program had so many requirements to get the rather small level of assistance that I think some people made the choice to let their business die with them having some dignity than to jump into through the hoops set up by the Ministry.

    In many other countries, the goal is to get the assistance to businesses as quickly as possible so they can keep staff, pay rent and avoid going over, typical CIG style, soon come

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    • Anonymous says:

      This program is pure bollocks! More proof that #JOEYWHO is a clown

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    • Anonymous says:

      It speaks to the arrogance and incompetence of Minister Hew plus the ministry of commerce. The focus is not about helping small or local businesses in dire need just look at the bureaucracy in the program. Sadly, he’s too busy holding court at the ritz and kimpton with his sponsors to focus on small business to provide real assistance.

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    • Anonymous says:

      My US based LLC got my money already with a 15 min form online poof US 10,000.00. Thanks US Treasury

      My Cayman business needed all sorts of work and I had to talk to a person who tried to be nice and helpful but whole thing was old fashion. I lost confidence and just didn’t move ahead with it… Good effort I suppose but I got to make money not jump through hoops…

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