DFC’s General Manager Breaks Down Loan Programme

Natalie Goff

The DFC loans, says General Manager Natalie Goff, are to be used as working capital and part of the company or business’ eligibility requires that thirty percent of staff must be retained.  The programme will be rolled out this Monday across the country and while the ten million dollars is not a large amount, the DFC says it is a start.

Natalie Goff, General Manager, DFC

“We were able to identify approximately, at this time, ten million dollars in working capital and I will explain to you what exactly is working capital and why it was such a challenge to access it.  But ten million dollars in working capital, primarily from CDB funds, as he has explained, and we’re also going to a couple of our other financial institutions who we have arrangements with to avail additional funds, but not in the amount that CDB is helping us.  We got that approval, I think, sometime last week and so we put together some guidelines which will I will summarize today.  But the intention is to launch this programme at all DFC offices throughout the country, all six of them on Monday, August third, giving us a couple days to put the programme together.  Who will be eligible for this programme?  Belizean nationals, residents or non-nationals or any locally registered entity with no less than fifty-one percent Belizean ownership; however, considering that in the tourism sector we do have non-nationals who are employing Belizeans and generating foreign exchange for the country, those will also be considered on a case by case basis.  The credit will be made directly to the tourism sector and all businesses, not only hoteliers, but they must have been operational prior to COVID and must have been in a relatively good standing with their financial institution.”