LEAF’s cash-strapped clients frustrated

Mar 28, 2009 News

Clients and potential clients of the Linden Economic Advancement Fund (LEAF) turned up at the establishment’s headquarters on Republic Avenue, to voice their disappointment and anger after another meeting planned to give approval for their loan applications did not materialize.
The meeting was reportedly planned several times, and postponed every time.
Some of the clients said that they had applied over three months ago for loans. One man said he had applied nearly six months ago and to date all he has been hearing is that the people from Georgetown will be coming for a meeting to approve the loans applications.
“This has thrown a blanket on everything, as I have already invested $1million in my business and was waiting for additional funding from LEAF to go forward, but now that is not forthcoming, and I have to be telling people not this week, next week, I am totally frustrated!” one man complained.
LEAF Fund Manager, Valerie Adams-Sharpe, said that she is very perturbed over the whole issue, as the organization should have received a further $56 million since March last year to facilitate further disbursements of loans to clients.
Clients have since been bombarding both the LEAF staff and the Fund Manager since word got out yesterday that the money would not be available to LEAF, as Caricom Insurance which manages the organisation purportedly does not have a license.
“My main concern is that we should have been told earlier about this.
Then I would have known how to operate with the funds that were disbursed earlier”, Ms Adams-Sharpe noted.
She added that LEAF has received more than 60 loan applications since last year, but unfortunately with the current funds in hand, less than half of the micro and small loans applications could be taken care of.
It would not be possible to disburse any medium loans however with the available funds which is most disappointing as these loans facilitate large-scale businesses ($15 million and upwards) where most employment opportunities take place.
Meanwhile, the people are calling on LEAF management (Caricom Insurance) to explain why no credit committee meeting was held for the year. They are also calling on major stakeholders in Linden including the Regional Chairman Mortimer Mingo, and Interim Management Committee Chairman, Orrin Gordon, and the president of the Linden Chamber of Commerce, who holds the chairmanship of the LEAP advisory board to look into this matter urgently.
They also said that they want the project manager of Linden Economic Advancement Programme (LEAP), Kathleen Whalen, to tell them what’s going on.
LEAF is a component of the Linden Economic Advancement Programme established in November 2004 to provide credit facilities to promising new and existing businesses in Region Ten. The first loan was disbursed in January 2005.
To date LEAF, which is a revolving fund, has a repayment of $301million, most of which has been already disbursed to clients, Ms Valerie Adams-Sharpe reported.
The last tranche received in March 2008 was $251million, which brought the total amount that was disbursed by the European Union to $ 434million.

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LEAF’s cash-strapped clients frustrated

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