Bahamian businesses can look forward to getting bank loans from the United States at very low interest rates through a new system.
During the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce and Embassy of the United States International Trade and Financing Seminar held recently at the Pelican Bay, Luis Castillo, President of International Realty Investors, Global Trade Insurance and Global Trade Financing explained to the small group of Bahamian business persons how they can access these funds.
Castillo said the purpose of the trip was to bring awareness to the local business people of what is available to them in the United States.
The interest rates for those businesses that do qualify, will be as low as between three to seven percent, he stated.
He noted that his company is a broker for the U.S. EX-IM bank which assists many countries in need of attaining funds for businesses.
Castillo said the loans can vary from as little as $25,000 to millions, as he noted further that although they only just introduced the program to Nassau on Tuesday, they were already working on deals as high as $30 million and ones as low as $60,000.
The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) is the official export credit agency of the United States federal government. It was established by an executive order, and made an independent agency in the Executive branch by Congress to finance and insure foreign purchases of United States goods for customers unable or unwilling to accept credit risk. The mission of the Bank is said to be to create and sustain U.S. jobs by financing sales of U.S. exports to international buyers. The Bank is chartered as a government corporation by the Congress of the United States and was last chartered for a five year term in 2006.
Asked about the decision for this company to come to The Bahamas Castillo said it was noted that with a population of 375,000 people and the fact that we import $3 billion annually made persons take notice of the potential here. It was further noted that with Freeport being the second city and a commercial center the information was needed here as well.
Castillo said that in April they were in the Dominican Republic, and in August they were looking to reach out to Honduras with Colombia scheduled for September and a toss-up between Barbados or Trinidad.
“We are looking at countries where people do not have opportunities to get loans at low rates and we are looking for emerging countries to make an impact” stated Castillo.
During the day-long seminar he covered a lot of topics as he made the business persons aware of who would be eligible, how to apply and what would be expected.
Freeport News
