Henry Anderson Moves Over From D.F.C Chair to General Manager

Henry Anderson

On February first, the Development Finance Corporation, D.F.C., will have a new general manager, but the man who is succeeding Sandra Goff is no stranger to the financial institution. In fact, Henry Anderson has been serving as D.F.C’s chairman. Anderson said there have been quite a few achievements under his previous post, and looks forward to new accomplishments in his new one.

Henry Anderson, General Manager, Development Finance Corporation

“The rational for doing it, Marion, is basically to continue to build the momentum that the board was starting to build. The DFC is a very key organization to develop Belize’s economy and it has started to make some good strides over the past two years post-COVID. So this was felt as the best way to continue the momentum. The board has been very busy. I was just looking at it. I think we have met thirty-two times over the past two years. We have addressed several issues. We’ve addressed the legislative framework for D.F.C to modernize it to allow the D.F.C to do a bit more. That was key too because it had in there a level of – or certain constraints were built in that prevented the team at the D.F.C from meeting customers’ needs in a timely fashion. So we’re trying to become more client-centric so we address those. The biggest thing, we deal with the difficult situation, the business model. I think the D.F.C had very high operating costs. I think like eighty percent of its expenses tied up in operations, so we were able to look at that, negotiate with management. The negotiation with the union is still ongoing. But by taking those steps, by everybody buckling down, managing the portfolio, looking at creative ways to  work with businesses post-COVID, to look at different workouts and different things like that. We were able to, in two years, grow to profitability. I think it’s two point nine million dollars turnaround.  I go now from chairman to general manager. So I go in to execute, to implement. The big step is to put D.F.C in a new strategic cycle in March of this year. So it’s to get that off and rolling, and all the areas that will focus on. We have a lot of work to do. The organization still has a way to grow so as to become resilient economically and to get the business model where we need it to be. We have to grow the portfolio, probably double it and at the same time, ensure all the parameters are within where we want it to say it’s a fully healthy portfolio.”