INTRODUCTION
After severely being affected by
Hurricane David in 1979, a group of spirited and ambitious business minded men
came to realize the need to take action to help boost the Dominican
economy. The National Development
Foundation of Dominica (NDFD) Limited was therefore formed and then registered
in August 1981 as a private non-profit organization.
The mission of the NDFD is to contribute
to poverty reduction and human resource development at the National level by
mobilizing funds for the provision of credit, business advisory services and
training primarily to the micro and small business sectors.
At inception, NDFD’s focused on
sectors where the small business enterprises create sustainable jobs. The Foundation benefited from funding from
benefactors to begin its early operations providing loans funding under a
guarantee scheme during the first year and then assisted with the
administration of loans when the revolving funds were received. The Foundation
then had to accelerate its efforts at becoming self sustainable. In this
regard, NDFD had to reduce its operating costs while at the same time seek ways
to increase its revenues.
OPERATIONS & PHILOSOPHY
The NDFD operates as a Micro Finance
entity which clearly differentiates it from financial entities whose operations
are more stringently regulated. We have
a responsibility to contribute to the national economic growth through
assisting potential entrepreneurs with little or no funds, to grow a business
concept from that micro aspect into a small, medium or even large enterprise. An important tenet of the philosophy
is that there is no divine profit maximization, and hence all surpluses are
plunged back into the operations, since there are no returns to be paid to
shareholders.
A number of challenges were faced
with the global economic growth and the increased debt in small and
underdeveloped economies like ours. The
global phenomena seriously impacted our local economy and therefore greater
awareness was created for the National Development Foundation of Dominica
(NDFD) Limited and the role it plays in stimulating the business sector.
GOALS OF THE NDFD
The Foundation continues and will
continue to assist entrepreneurs to start, expand or improve their
businesses. The general criteria for
accessing the Foundation’s financing remain whereby, the business must:
·
be
economically viable;
·
utilize local
raw materials;
·
manufacture
new products or develop existing products;
·
help in the
stimulation of exports or reduction of imports;
·
offer a
service that is vital to the community or to visitors to the community;
·
be of
productive value to the community.
ADMINISTRATION OF THE NDFD
The Foundation is administered by a voluntary
Board of Directors consisting of 9 members with knowledge and experience in
disciplines such as Finance, Agriculture, Banking and Credit, Gender Affairs,
Business and Law, just to name a few.
They form a resource base for
providing guidance and direction to the Foundation. The day to day management is the responsibility
of the Executive Director, assisted by a number of staff members all of whom are qualified in their respective areas of
responsibility.
STRATEGIC
PLANNING
The Foundation continues to establish and
maintain partnership and good business relationships with key stakeholders in
an effort to position itself to deliver the highest quality of service to its
clients.
STATISTIC
The graph below shows the number and value of
loans from 2009 to 2013.
|
NDFD - STATISTIC
|
|
|
|
|||
|
2009
|
2010
|
2011
|
2012
|
2013
|
||
|
NO. OF LOANS
|
1,234
|
1,236
|
1,581
|
1,935
|
1450
|
|
|
VALUE
|
4,301,532
|
4,620,441
|
5,983,172
|
7,867,672
|
6,224,725
|
|
|
|
|
|
The state of the economy both
locally and globally demands that businesses re-think and re-tool in order to
remain relevant. As a result of this
facility, significant improvements have been made in the number and size of
loans granted by the NDFD, as the demands for its products and services remain
high.
In addition,
The National Development Foundation of Dominica (NDFD) Limited and The Dominica
National Petroleum Company Ltd signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) in
support of Micro, Small & Medium Sized Enterprises (MSME) in November 2013.
In the MOA, the DNPC made available a loan in
the amount of five million dollars ($5,000,000.00) to the NDFD for un-lending
to the MSME sector. Attached below is a summary as at March 10th,
2014:
|
IMPACT ON BUSINESS SECTOR
UP TO MARCH 10, 2014
|
|
Total Portfolio $753,703.20
|
|
Undisbursed Amount
$ 45,628.89
|
|
Principal In Arrears $
2,477.31
|
|
Interest & Late Payment $ 830.67
|
|
Total Arrears $ 3,307.98
|
|
Delinquency 0.0044
%
|
CONCLUSION
The road ahead is tough but the Foundation
remains positive in these turbulent times. We have survived thirty-three years
we are aiming to build on the success which we have endured thus far. The National Development Foundation is driven
by its mission, and is guided by its 2012 theme “Striving to Promote and Support
Entrepreneurial Excellence and Success”.
