VISION

By 2030, the DBJ is Latin America & the Caribbean’s leading development finance institution that drives sustainable development and contributes to innovation & broad-based socio-economic growth in Jamaica and the region.

MISSION

The Development Bank of Jamaica, through its customer-centric approach, provides opportunities to all Jamaicans to improve their quality of life through development financing, capacity building, Public Private Partnership and Privatisation solutions, in keeping with Government policies and sustainable development goals.

CORE VALUES

PROFESSIONALISM

INTEGRITY

ACCOUNTABILITY

INNOVATION

BACKGROUND

The Development Bank of Jamaica is a wholly owned Government company created in 2000 as a result of mergers with other development-related institutions that included the Agricultural Credit Bank of Jamaica, the National Development Bank of Jamaica and, in 2006, the National Investment Bank of Jamaica.

The DBJ provides, to all levels of Jamaican entrepreneurs, a range of services that includes:

The DBJ facilitates economic growth and development across all sectors and includes all Jamaicans, regardless of socio-economic strata, in its quest to meet the Vision 2030 goal of making Jamaica “the place of choice to live, work, raise families and do business.”

WHAT WE DO

While the DBJ provides funding and technical assistance to large projects, it has expanded and improved its assistance to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) which are widely recognised as the engine of economic growth and development, especially in small economies.

The DBJ supports Jamaican businesses through the provision of access to financing, support services and a partial guarantee facility. The Bank also facilitates investment, by all Jamaicans, in publicly-owned entities through the Public-Private Partnerships and Privatisation (P4) programmes, allowing the Government to transfer the ownership, management and operations of public assets to the private sector which is better able to efficiently operate them.

OUR FOCUS

Financing

Ensuring that low-cost funds, in the form of business loans for projects and working capital, are available to all viable enterprises in the productive, distributive, retail and creative sectors. The DBJ has also been a catalyst for the development of the private capital ecosystem as well as being an anchor investor in private equity and credit Funds. These Funds have provided flexible alternative financing for Jamaican businesses.

Capacity Development and Technical Assistance

Increasing demand for development finance by strengthening the capacity of MSMEs to borrow, invest and expand.

Public-Private Partnerships and Privatisation

Managing and executing the Government’s Public-Private Partnerships and Privatisation programmes, through which entrepreneurship is developed and the ownership base of public entities is broadened.

HOW WE DO IT

The DBJ utilizes its own resources and also borrows funds from external financial institutions for on-lending through its network of partner financial institutions.

The external sources which provide funds for on-lending include, but are not limited to, multilateral agencies such as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), Caribbean Development Bank, China Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, European Investment Bank and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries Fund for International Development.

Domestic sources of funding include the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, and the National Insurance Fund.

Each lender stipulates its applicable terms and conditions, has its own reporting requirements and provides funds for specific purposes.

The DBJ does not lend funds directly to individuals. Instead, its products and services are provided through partner institutions that include Approved Financial Institutions (AFI), Micro Finance Institutions (MFI), Business Development Organisations (BDO), and Business Support Intermediaries (BSI), among others.

The Bank’s funds are channelled through a network of AFIs – that include a variety of organizations such as commercial banks, credit unions, and investment houses – and MFIs, which provide the initial credit evaluation and loan supervision before on-lending to clients.

The relationships with AFIs and MFIs are critical to the work of the DBJ as, through these institutions and their island-wide network of branches, the Bank’s products and services are easily accessible.

The suite of products that the DBJ provides to Jamaican entrepreneurs through its CRM Division includes:

Loans

  • Direct (direct lending through co-financing with other financial institutions)
  • To MSMEs through the Bank’s networks of Approved Financial Institutions; and
  • To micro entrepreneurs through the DBJ’s approved Micro Finance Institutions (MFI)

Guarantees via the Credit Enhancement Facility (CEF)

Reverse Factoring (supply chain financing)

Equity (through referrals to angel investors and various Funds)

Grants

  • Energy Audit Grant
  • Jamaica Business Fund (supply chain financing)
  • Voucher for Technical Assistance
  • Go-Digital Voucher
  • Innovation Grant from New Ideas to Entrepreneurs (IGNITE)
  • Innovation Grant Fund

Good and sound corporate governance ensures that the DBJ is effective and efficient in playing its role in making Jamaica “the place of choice to live, work, raise families and do business”.

By establishing systems and protocols, and allocating the necessary tools and resources, the DBJ’s Board of Directors and Senior Management team have demonstrated full and complete ownership of corporate governance within the organisation, resulting in the promotion of transparency, maintenance of a strong culture of accountability, and strengthening of internal controls.

The Research, Business Analytics and Product Development units play critical roles in the Bank’s ability to provide support to the entrepreneurial sector while remaining relevant in a fast-changing business environment.

These units:

  1. Help to identify market gaps within the MSME sector, create and enhance financial products to fill the identified gaps while developing and maintaining standards, frameworks, models and policies for product development within the Bank
  2. Ensure that the DBJ understands its role in driving economic growth by selecting which initiatives to support
  3. Identify opportunities for DBJ to facilitate economic growth and job creation while developing impact assessment tools for products and project; and
  4. Ensure that the relevant DBJ teams have relevant historical, current and projected economic and financial data to guide decision making while managing the Bank’s performance reporting.

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is integral to the DBJ’s overall operations and pivotal to its success.

Implemented in 2012, the DBJ’s customized Integrated ERM Framework was influenced by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO), the International Organization for Standardization – ISO 31000:2009 ERM frameworks and other established frameworks; and has facilitated a structured and disciplined approach towards managing risk.

Since then, the framework has been continuously reviewed to reflect ever-shifting standards and regulations. This structure is applied to all categories of risks across functional, structural, and departmental silos including strategic, credit, market, liquidity, operational, cyber, and reputational risks.

By integrating ERM in both high-level decision making and day-to-day business decisions on an enterprise-wide basis, the Bank ensures that risk management is embedded within the business cycle, starting with strategic planning through to execution, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting.

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