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Every election cycle politicians trip over themselves to play the role of small business champion. They unveil extensive menus of goodies for MSMEs, and are the loudest advocates for entrepreneurial risk-taking.
On paper, manifestos proclaim that the engine of our economic growth is not powered in corporate boardrooms, but in cook shops, fields, stalls, storefronts, modest offices, and small manufacturing outfits run by ordinary Jamaicans.
Yet, once all ballots are counted and celebratory speeches end, the ecosystem and frameworks to develop MSMEs remain largely unchanged.
As the months go by, election promises are unmeasured and mostly undelivered, until years pass and all appears forgotten. Meanwhile, our small business owners are shut out of the most lucrative opportunities to help them grow.
Whether the slogan is “Time Come” or “1PM”, micro and small businesses need more than rhetoric, gimmicks, and recycled promises. The next government, whichever party forms it, must be held accountable to clear, measurable targets. The sector needs tangible, trackable actions with firm deadlines and supporting data.
Atop the list is a concrete implementation schedule for a ‘Vision 2030 MSME Action Plan’, alongside enabling legislation tabled in Parliament. But laws and regulations alone are not enough. As I have argued in previous columns, they must be accompanied by regulatory impact analysis that explicitly evaluates how proposed policies will affect micro, small and medium-sized businesses.
Too often, this critical cost-benefit lens is absent from Gordon House debates, leaving entrepreneurs to bear the brunt of poorly tested decisions.
As a small nation, we are stalled at the intersection of stubborn obstacles that have a chokehold on the growth potential of micro and small businesses. These aren’t abstract problems, they are chronic yet solvable, with political will. Without credible solutions, talk of sizeable and sustained economic growth will remain just that: talk.
Let’s call a spade a spade: one of our biggest challenges is elite rent-seeking and crony capitalism at the top. In other words, too many powerful people and groups continue to bend political and economic systems to serve themselves, siphoning wealth without building anything new or adding real value to society.
This goes beyond status, privilege or influence; it’s a flagrant affront to inclusive growth, and remains a formidable barrier to genuine economic transformation.
In Jamaica the business elite don’t just influence policy, they occupy the critical seats of power – from government boards to policy committees and task forces. Their presence is entrenched and enduring. Too often, their objective is not to foster a fair and competitive market, but to shape regulations, policies and even laws that build protective moats around their existing empires. The result is a rigged economy where upward mobility for the average Jamaican and their children is systematically blocked.
Equally corrosive is the corruption of capital allocation. Public funds are routinely diverted to rescue well-connected elites in times of liquidity crisis, to prop up their enterprises or absorb their bad assets.
It is the most brazen and iniquitous abuse of privilege. Losses are socialised while profits are privatised. This practice stifles ingenuity, erodes patriotism, and demoralises the very citizens who fuel the economy. Worse yet, it keeps unproductive, inefficient firms vibrant, while squeezing out space for new, innovative SMEs that could actually drive Jamaica’s growth.
However, even if political favouritism disappeared overnight, small businesses would hit other roadblocks.
They face market too small to carry their ambitions as well as stymied access to overseas options. This caps growth even before some entrepreneurs can dream bigger.
The limited pool of talent and expertise is also prohibitive, especially for small businesses struggling to compensate, attract, train and retain talent.
Further exacerbating the limited talent pool is consistent brain drain, which purges the country of many ambitious, highly educated people who emigrate to other countries in search of opportunities, better salaries, and an improved standard of living. When success depends heavily on connections rather than ambition, it thwarts the entrepreneurial drive, or forces many to take flight.
Lack of equitable access to affordable capital is a major stumbling block. Financial institutions remain risk averse to SMEs, and still favour consumer lending for motor vehicles, and commercial loans mainly for well-established, large enterprises.
Bureaucracy and slow digitisation weigh heavily on small enterprises. Business owners spend countless unpaid hours weaving through layers of red tape just to pay government fees and taxes or secure permits or licences. Without world-class digital and physical infrastructure, and with the added burden of high electricity and security costs, businesses are held to ransom by systemic inadequacies.
Additionally, across the island, the infrastructure gap appears as wide as the wealth gap, with many outside the Corporate Area battling slow internet, bad road conditions, unreliable water supply, and more.
At the same time, the Jamaican government also has constraints. A small economy means a smaller tax base and limited fiscal room to fund healthcare, security, education and infrastructure development, while also providing support for small businesses.
We also know that the climate crisis and our reliance on the North American market for tourism and remittances has made us extremely vulnerable to external shocks, such as erratic, political policies and extreme weather events.
Notwithstanding, let us be clear: a country can build all the incubators, export promotion agencies, training programmes, and mentorship and business development services it wants, but they will not be effective if the underlying system stays rigged in favour of powerful and insatiable elites.
Even the best-intentioned initiatives will collapse under the weight of entrenched inequality.
As small businesses claw their way back from COVID’s death grip, these constituents need more than vague affirmations. What is required is clarity, transparency and verifiable proof of performance. If small businesses are truly the heart of our economy, give them the lifeline to match.
One love!
Yaneek Page is the programme lead for Market Entry USA, and a certified trainer in entrepreneurship.yaneek.page@gmail.com
English (US) ·