Welcome to the Development Bank of Jamaica’s DBJ AGRIBIZ Programme – Grow with DBJ

The Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) through its mission “providing opportunities to all Jamaicans to improve their quality of life through development financing, capacity building, public-private partnership” has introduced ‘The DBJ AGRIBIZ Programme- Grow with the DBJ’.  This will help the Jamaican farmers build back better. We are also focused on Digital transformation in Agriculture and improving the issues surrounding females in Agriculture.

The Development Bank of Jamaica is making over J$1 billion available to the Agriculture sector and this will be administered through our island-wide network of approved financial institutions and micro finance institutions.

The goal of the programme is to support all levels of agricultural activities, Micro Small and Medium sized enterprises in the following ways:

    1.     Supporting entrepreneurs in the agriculture sector with concessional loans to help them restart their businesses.

    2.    Supporting micro farmers in the agriculture sector with technical assistance that will help them increase their ability to access financing.

    3.   Providing workshops designed to increase the financial inclusion of micro farmers in the formal financial sector. The programme will see micro farmers               strengthening their financial awareness. Increasing their understanding of the importance of good financial choices and improve their overall business               practices. 

The DBJ AGRIBIZ programme consists of:

     1.    A LOAN: Dedicated Agriculture line of credit and this will be accessible through our financial partners. 

     2.       Farmers Technical Assistance (through our partner the Agro Investment Corporation):  This is designed to assist farmers manage their business                  operations, improving their ability to access loans and overall expanding their business. The programme will include support for:

                      I.         Business plans

                      II.       financial statements,

                      III.       Mentorship

                      IV.      Business process improvement

                      V.       And product formulation

                            –          Financial Training for farmers- This is designed to help farmers manage their finances and be loan ready, better under record                                        keeping, learn how to digitize their businesses and receive training on making sound financial decisions such as:

                            –          The importance of Financial Management

                            –          Making Good Financial Decisions

                            –          The Nature of Financial Services in Jamaica 

            3.       Scholarship for an Agriculture student: The DBJ will provide a scholarship to a student in the second year at the College of Agriculture, Science and               Education.

We at the DBJ understand the importance of the agriculture sector and food security and aim to fill a well needed gap with this programme. We want to encourage Jamaica to support our farmers to GROW… our food, their farm, business and ultimately the economy.