NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The Bahamas Entrepreneurial Venture Fund saw its loan repayment fall over 84 percent as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Michael Cunningham, chairman of the Venture Fund, told Bahamas Business Outlook attendees: “In reviewing the Venture Fund’s portfolio, the following was observed: loan repayment fell from between 84 to 97 percent of the monthly required payment.
“That is, for every dollar that we were required to receive pre-pandemic, we received less than $0.84 cents. Twenty-three percent of the portfolio requested payments to be deferred and 15 percent continued to make monthly payments.”
Cunningham further noted: “Sixty-two percent of our portfolio that were under the debt program had decided just not to make any payment and have had no communication with the fund.”
According to Cunningham, the fund’s portfolio under the government’s business continuity COVID-19 loan relief program saw 38 percent of borrowers start to make repayments up to mid-January.
“That is a good sign of the level of confidence and strong determination these companies have to survive,” he said.
“Twenty-three percent of the portfolio under this program is directly impacted by the tourist market and not able to commence repayments. We encourage all companies to start repaying their loans if they are able to do so.”
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