BY DESTINY JOHNSON
Journal Staff Writer
The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) is gearing up for a successful 2024 with the
roll out of some new initiatives as well as the maintenance of the grants already established.
Executive Director of the SBDC Samantha Rolle said there is one more initiative coming soon.
“So, we forecast that we have one additional initiative that we will close the year with and that
would be our young entrepreneur’s initiative coming soon. And so, all the details around that, we
will definitely highlight in the coming weeks, but that would be our final grant initiative that we
will launch for the year 2023. The year 2024 is looking extremely bright and promising as well,”
Ms. Rolle told reporters on Monday.
This past year, the company has been satisfied with the number of persons who are tapping into
the grants and initiatives created by SBDC.
Ms. Rolle said so many industries have been touched by SBDC and in 2024 they aim to expand.
“We’ve been able to help on a wider scope of the public throughout the number of initiatives that
we’ve launched throughout 2023. I mean, we’ve been able to tap into various industries across
sectors and a multitude of entrepreneurs. Now, of course, our resources can only go so far, but I
think we should be proud in the fact that we were able to highlight a number of things within the
renewable energy space, the creative entrepreneur’s space, women entrepreneurs, we’ve been
able to support greatly even in the fitness and wellness space, and those are just three or four that
I can name off the top of my head. In 2024, we expect to expand our level of support to
entrepreneurs,” Ms. Rolle said.
“So, while we believe that our successes for 2023 in supporting up-to-date in our five-year, 10-
year, you know over 2,100 clients in the amount of $81 million plus. Across the various
initiatives that we’ve hosted from start to now, I mean I think that SBDC is really, really rooted in
supporting empowering and equipping MSMEs across The Bahamas.”
Moving into 2024, the executive director said their focus is going to be more geared toward
Family Island development.
