JSE launches micro market to widen equity access for small Jamaican firms

The Jamaica Stock Exchange has officially launched its micro market, a regulated platform aimed at helping small and emerging local businesses raise equity capital in the range of fifty to one hundred million Jamaican dollars.

Group Chief Executive Officer Livingston Morrison said the new tier extends the exchange’s work of opening capital formation to the smallest enterprises, under the same fair, transparent, and rules-based standards applied across the JSE’s other markets. He added that a healthy exchange is one where new entities continue to see it as a natural venue for raising patient capital year after year.

Minister of Industry, Investment, and Commerce Minister Hill described the launch as the closing of a gap that has long stood between promising small Jamaican businesses and the funding they need to grow. He said many entrepreneurs operate factory floors, hold growing order books, and produce goods that can compete globally, yet too often must borrow against everything they own or remain small—stalling expansion, limiting job creation, and holding back export earnings.

Under the micro market model, companies gain a sponsor and mentor alongside investors, with a clear pathway to graduate to the junior market and beyond. The decision to create the tier was also informed by the junior market’s success. Finance Minister Fayval Williams, whose endorsement helped raise that segment’s capital-raising limit from five hundred million to seven hundred and fifty million Jamaican dollars, said the micro market opens a new pathway for thousands of Jamaican entrepreneurs and supports growth across the micro and emerging enterprise sectors.

Firms that list will receive a full income tax holiday for the first five years after listing, followed by a fifty per cent income tax concession from years six through ten. Requirements include a minimum of three independent directors, a mandatory audit committee, strong financial oversight, and a sponsor who acts as a strategic partner rather than only a financier. Morrison said companies raising capital on the platform are expected to expand, export, invest, and employ more people.

IDB Group Country Representative to Jamaica Natasha Marzolf commended the initiative as bold and transformative, with potential to become a flagship for the Caribbean. Morrison said ten companies have already been identified as prepared to enter the market, and he looks forward to the first cohort ringing the exchange bell.