The Development Finance Corporation launched two new lines of credit this morning with substantial funding from the CDB.
It's targeted for students, small scale farmers and producers. Jomarie Lanza attended the ceremony this morning and here's her story:
In September we reported that DFC celebrated 60 years of service and in country operations, providing assistance for development among families and the economy.
Today the chairman told us that this new 37 million dollar CDB-funded line of credit for student loans and the Agricultural and Industrial Sectors is a major testament to the DFC's resilience and the steadfast partnership of the IDB:
Reynaldo Guerra, Chairman of DFC
"In the presentations it mentioned quite a lot of what the relationship had to do but the most critical part had to do back in 2009 when CEO came in and at the time DFC was at its highest low, that was an oxymoron but it needed that support and so CDB came and provided that support. So where we are today is due to a lot of innovation and a lot of different things that have been happening and so we are nowhere close to where it was back then. We've recovered fully and we are now moving forward on a new journey."
And this new journey has so far benefitted 120 Belizeans that have taken up student loans, the same kind the CEO got when he was a student:
Henry Anderson, CEO, DFC
"It's big. We have two facilities, the student loan facility, that was 12 million. I say was because we have exhausted most of it but what that does is DFC's remit is to contribute to the development of Belize and of Belizeans so this allows us to have Belizeans to access tertiary level education, in Belize and outside of Belize and we prioritize like STEM education and things of that nature so myself many years ago I think I got one of the last full
bright scholarships but where I went to school I needed more money so I was able to get a student loan so that's back in the early 90s it's that same programme continuing and one of the things about the student loans product that DFC offers is truly the only student loan project in Belize meaning you can go to school and you only pay the interest until you return. You may have heard in there that there is also some special funding for student loans so we have a special concessionary financing in the case of persons who get accepted to school but they don't have wherewithal in terms of collateral right if you meet certain criteria you can actually get funding go to school and not pay and penny and then after you graduate then you get to to start to pay back your loan. And you may have heard two words mentioned today, resilience and equity. When we talk equity in the development space, it is to ensure that Belizeans get access to the resources they need to improve the quality of living so in that case we have funds for people who have regular need but also for Belizeans who have special needs in the case of education. We are the only financial institution that does that."
in the ministry of labor Valentino Shal spoke with us about GOB's continuous support of the DFC's work in developing the workforce and economy.
Valentino Shal, CEO, Ministry of Rural Transformation, Local Government and Labour
"Well today was the launch of two lines of credit being financed by the Caribbean development bank to DFC and we are just here to represent the government and lend support to this process. The DFC has been successful at implementing these types of programmes, specifically in this case it's a line of credit for students and a line of credit for MSME's in the agriculture and industrial sector. It is very important that we continue to support this as we continue to grow the economy of Belize."
"The building of the skill set of our human resource as a nation is part of building up the labor pool of the country and they work in whatever sector they work in and so this is a huge investment into the workforce of the country and so it's extremely important for us, yes."
The student line is $US6 million and the other is $12.5 million US.
