Jamaica’s Development Bank to Offer Loans to BPO Sector

The Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) will offer financial support to companies in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector in a bid to foster the industry’s development in the island nation.

Edison Galbraith, DBJ General Manager, said the bank is aiming to assist both persons wishing to enter the BPO sector as well as existing companies with loans at competitive interest rates.

Speaking during a panel discussion at the Outsource2Jamaica Conference held earlier this month in Montego Bay, Galbraith said the bank’s plan will allow new and existing members to grow and have access to financial resources for services and personnel development.

Local BPO players participating in a panel discussion on the sector emphasized the importance of capital intensity for the sustainability of BPO.

The panel, which featured Kirk Laughlin, founder and Managing Director of Nearshore Americas, Patrick Casserly, Chief President and CEO at PCR Nearshore, Jacqueline Sutherland, CEO of Contax360 BPO Solutions, and Yoni Epstein, Executive Chairman of itelBPO Smart Solution, agreed that players in the BPO sector are also encouraged to take a non-traditional approach to raising capital to expand their businesses.

They welcomed the DBJ’s initiative to tailor specific products to meet the urgent capital needs to further grow the sector.

In January, the Inter-American Development Bank (IBD) agreed to lend Jamaica US$15 million, which the country will use to develop a pipeline of BPO talent.

In addition to customer services, the BPO sector currently offers healthcare services, legal processes, banking, software and applications development and finance and accounting outsourcing, according to Gloria Henry of the Business Process Industry Association of Jamaica (BPIAJ).

The BPO sector is enjoying solid growth in Jamaica, with the number of people employed in the sector increasing more than three-fold over the last five years to over 36,000.