St. George’s, Grenada; April 29, 2024: One year after its establishment, Republic looks back on the achievements of its Business Centre.
Launched on April 26, 2023, the Republic Business Centre provides dedicated support to micro, small and medium enterprises in and around St. George’s. Located on Halifax Street, the Centre offers a “one-stop-shop” service to small business owners. Services include loan facilities, chequing and overdraft facilities, business credit cards, accounts and foreign trade, and merchant services.
Reflecting on the accomplishments to date, Manager – Commercial Banking, Kurt Mc Farlane said: “So far, we are quite satisfied with the strides we have made in addressing the needs of our Micro Small and Medium Enterprise customers. By providing their banking solutions from a central location, the Business Centre allows our customers more time, which is a valuable currency when managing any business. We serve various sectors including manufacturing, farming and poultry, creatives, healthcare, food services, IT/Engineering, construction, distributive trade, fishing, energy and entertainment to name of few.”
Mc Farlane also cited Republic Bank’s partnership with the Eastern Caribbean Partial Credit Guarantee Corporation which provides up to 80% guarantee for small businesses requiring collateral for loans, as a major contributor to the Centre’s operational success to date. He pointed to the Bank’s winning of the coveted ECCU Bank of the Year award for Support to MSME’s last December, as an indicator of the work the Republic Business Centre is doing.
The Republic Business Centre, which includes a Small Business unit, Commercial Credit department and Operations support, provides not only core banking services, but advisory/nurturing counselling as well, from the infancy stages of a business and upward.
Republic Bank remains committed to supporting MSMEs through the Entrepreneur Business Builder Programme, the ECPCGC guarantee programme and the newly introduced E-Pay service.