Hill seeks $1b this week for Melissa-hit micro firms in Westmoreland

SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — Senator Aubyn Hill, the minister with responsibility for industry, investment and commerce, says the Government intends this week to secure financing for micro-enterprises still struggling after Hurricane Melissa.

“The prime minister at the time directed Minister [of Finance and the Public Service, Fayval] Williams and myself to work with DBJ [Development Bank of Jamaica)] to get $1 billion Jamaican dollars to just start to help businesses. And again, not the ones that are established — the ones that really, really need help to come back up,” stated Hill.

“We now have the data; we’re going to try and get the money this coming week to make sure we begin that process,” added the minister, who spoke last Wednesday night to the Westmoreland Chamber of Commerce and Industry at Hotel Commingle in Savanna-la-Mar.

Hill indicated that officials are weighing several options for getting funds to operators who need them. WiPay is among the channels under review.

“We are looking at ways to make sure we can get the money quickly to people, because if you start to open bank accounts, you know, that’s another issue. It takes a long time before you get people into the banks because that’s the way it is,” explained the minister.

He reported that the National Export-Import Bank of Jamaica, which sits under his portfolio, channelled $2.1 billion to ordinary micro, small and medium-sized enterprises across 2025 to 2026. For 2026 to 2027, roughly $1.7 billion in loans is planned.

“That’s apart from the $1 billion that I’m seeking to go directly to the small businesses that have not yet found a way to restore themselves but are important to the communities in which they reside,” the minister explained.

At the gathering, local entrepreneurs outlined barriers that leave them barely able to stay afloat. Connectivity ranked high among those concerns. Although mobile service has seen some gains, operators say that nine months after the Category 5 hurricane, most businesses still lack landline or fibre Internet from Jamaica’s biggest telecommunications company.

Hill has directed his staff to prepare correspondence to Flow Jamaica General Manager Stephen Price highlighting the problem.

“I want a follow-up four business days after we send it because part of my job has to be to advocate for those who don’t have the voice or the platform that I have. And therefore, I’m saying to you that I will take that issue further up,” the minister assured those looking to him for solutions.

Connectivity was only one of five urgent priorities tabled during the session, which ran more than six hours and mixed closed and open discussions. Another was relocating Savanna-la-Mar’s market. The chamber and Mayor Danree Delancy stressed that the existing facility, heavily wrecked by the storm, sits on the shoreline and floods repeatedly.

“The first big storm that comes, more water is going to come over it again. You just can’t keep doing that. I’m going to take it to Cabinet and say, ‘Look, we have to be reminded… that Savanna-la-Mar is below sea level. And so, fixing the market is not simply clearing it out and getting it back, because we’re right now in the hurricane season,” argued Hill.

Other items flagged were refuse collection, civic upgrade and development, an investment facilitation programme offering financial support, and repairs to roads. Hill observed that, as with markets, garbage services sit with the Local Government Ministry rather than his own. He nonetheless pressed the point that, even with “the shortage of money in NSWMA [National Solid Waste Management Authority]”, Savanna-la-Mar ought to remain tidy.

On town enhancement and development, he said Prime Minister Andrew Holness is paying attention. He recalled that Westmoreland is sometimes cast as neglected, yet St Thomas — now seeing large-scale construction — once faced a comparable reputation.

Turning to bad roads, Hill pointed to the still-forming One Road Authority as the answer.

“The road building for Westmoreland is part of a national road-building system. Unless when you come to a place like Savanna-la-Mar where people live, and must move around, if it’s crowded some basic things can be done,” he said.