By EDDIE OSIFELO

DEVELOPMENT Bank of Solomon Islands (DBSI) has lent out $51.5 million to different clients since its inception early this year.

Minister of Finance and Treasury, Harry Kuma confirmed this when asked by MP for Small Malaita, Rick Hou in Parliament yesterday.

Minister Kuma said DBSI is doing well in its operation so far since its inception this year, despite the covid 19.

He said DBSI offers various lending products to agriculture, fishing, forestry investment, livelihood, retails, land and sea transport and wholesales.

Kuma said DBSI loan portfolio reached $51.5 million, an increase on approximate $2.5 million from 31st October, as bank slowly dispersed loan.

Furthermore, Kuma said under the total portfolio, as the bank continues to disperse new loan:

1.         Livelihood project get $34.3 million, representing 67% of total portfolio;

2.         Investment sector with $11m, representing 21% of total loan portfolio;

3.         Retails 1.6m, representing 3.2% of total loan portfolio;

4.         Fishing $1.6m, representing 3% of total loan portfolio;

5.         Livestock, Land and sea transport gets $714,000, representing 1.4% of total portfolio;

6.         Agriculture gets $632,644, representing 1.2% of total loan portfolio;

7.         Forestry and wholesale gets $217,630.

In terms of provinces:

1.         Malaita gets $21.9 million

2.         Guadalcanal $8.6m

3.         West – $5.7m

4.         Isabel – $3.9 m

5.         Makira – $3m

6.         Temotu $2.8m

7.         Choiseul – $2.4 m

8.         Central -$2.3m

9.         Renbel $734,629,000

10.       others $92,000 plus

MP Hou asked the minister to explain why livelihood take almost 60% to 70% of total loan portfolios.

Minister Kuma said the livelihood products, make around 67%, mainly from personal loans.

He said individuals take, and most of it are well secured and slowly repaid back to bank through salaries.

THE Young Entrepreneurs Council Solomon Islands (YECSI) calls on Cabinet to reconsider its stance on the proposed temporary ban on Facebook and highlight the need for Cabinet to conduct robust dialogue with stakeholders before making a decision to that effect.

YECSI supports the development and empowerment of both aspiring and current young business owners as a means to alleviate high youth unemployment rate in the country.

With more than 50 present members engaged in diverse industries from barbers, music, agriculture, tourism to professional services; the majority heavily rely on Facebook as a marketing, advertising and information channel to sustain their businesses.

As days pass and the severity of the FB Ban issue increases as a reality, YECSI members are seriously concerned about the further detrimental impacts the ban would have on their businesses.

For Julian Maetoloa, Director and owner of Empire Barber, Facebook is the main platform to communicate with his customers.

“Empire uses Facebook for marketing and advertising the products and services we provide. Shutting it down will have a huge impact on our business,” said Maetoloa.

Neweye, another small business operating in the agriculture sector, expressed its concern stating that banning Facebook should not be the option for Cabinet at the first place because of the negative effect it would have on small businesses.

“This banning of Facebook, in my view, will surely and drastically cut down the channel process in reaching my markets,” said Moses Michael, owner of Neweye.

While covid-19 impacts are already causing suffering to many young businesses in the country with declining sales and unwanted downscaling, young entrepreneurs are now incredibly anxious about the sustainability of their businesses if their trusted marketplace is removed from their business equation to survive.

YECSI Chairlady, Millicent Barty, shares huge concerns of the “new normal” the organisation has been promoting and exercising since the start of the year as initiatives to help members adapt to impacts of covid-19.

“We [YECSI] have invested a lot of our resources and we’ve been working extremely hard on providing our members trainings to help them adapt and be better prepared for the immediate future,” she states.

“The promotion of digital marketing trainings have been the centre of how we’ve envisaged the “new normal” for young SI businesses as an asset to survive this pandemic, and now, we’re being denied the most effective marketplace [Facebook] and business tool accessible to us which raises huge uncertainties and dismisses how we and the rest of the world popularly perceive this new normal.”

YECSI in partnership with Strongim Bisnis launched its ‘Ennovation Blo Iumi’ program in July to harness technological advancements and innovation to promote entrepreneurship under the theme “Innovating for Uncertainties [covid-19 inspired]”.

The program was a huge success affording 40 young aspiring entrepreneurs the opportunity to learn and build business models with three winners of the programme currently undergoing incubation of their start-ups at YECSI.

The incubation period aims to support the growth of these businesses with finance and mentorship support to officially launch next year.

As one of the participants of the programme, Tulagi Tours, is a classic example of a local tourist operator, based in Tulagi, that has been substantially affected by the pandemic and has had to diversify and innovate on social media with new domestic tour packages.

Managing Director of Tulagi Tours, Richard Sapia, asserted the current proposal will badly affect their business as a tour operator that has been struggling already to survive amidst the pandemic.

“Facebook is an important tool to keep my business going in such hard times, I am of the view that cabinet must please reconsider,” said Sapia.

“We would barely maintain our sales and growth if Facebook is banned or even suspended for a certain period of time,” MNEM Investment said in a statement to YECSI.

MNEM Investment is an agri-business and emphasizes the importance of Facebook when it comes to doing business especially because it’s a fast, affordable and easy way of selling its products.

YECSI Chairlady acknowledges that Facebook as a virtual platform offers better business functionalities and measured insights through its interface and tools compared to other social media platforms.

“FB is the most effectively designed avenue for young businesses to thrive and we mustn’t forget that, demographically, most targeted customers for our small businesses are active members of Facebook.”

In light of concerns its members raised and the likely negative impact the proposed ban would have on small businesses, YECSI appeals to cabinet to go back to the drawing boards and consider alternatives that can achieve effective compromises to ensure businesses can survive.

–YECSI MEDIA

BY BARNABAS MANEBONA

PRIME Minister Manasseh Sogavare is humbled by the many criticisms towards government and also on himself.

Speaking during his Coronavirus (Covid-19) ‘Nationwide Address’ yesterday, Mr Sogavare said he understand the challenges of leadership, as it is always not easy.

The Prime Minister said as the nation enter into the final month of 2020, let everyone remind themselves that Solomon Islands has been challenged by many forces, not controlled by itself.

“As your Prime Minister, I understand the challenges of Leadership. It is not always easy, and I am humbled by the many commendations and criticisms on the Government that I lead and also on myself,” said Sogavare.

“As we get ready to enter the final month of 2020, let us remind ourselves that our nation has been challenged by many forces, not controlled by ourselves.

“However, the solutions are within our grasps. Let us continue to stand together, and work together for the greater good of our people and our nation. There is more that unite us than divide us.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is still rampaging the world over. However, with God’s grace we are moving forward to contain and eliminate the virus from our shores.  We move forward with God’s divine Grace, love, and peace.”

BY EDDIE OSIFELO

OPPOSITION leader Mathew Wale says the differing opinions of people are not a threat to the unity of this nation.

Rather, he said the things that threaten our national unity are when government is seen to be unfair and only serving the interests of a few.

Wale was speaking in parliament yesterday on the motion of sine die Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare tabled last week.

His comments were in direct response to statements Sogavare made when reinforcing his Government’s intention to temporarily ban Facebook.

Sogavare earlier stated that the widespread abuse and negativity on Facebook is threatening the unity of this nation.

And that’s one of the reasons why the Government proposes to ban Facebook while the Government works on laws to control and manage the use of this social media platform.

But Wale said our unity is threatened when more resources are allocated to MPs in government, depriving the rest of Solomon Islanders.

“When our politics focus on our political needs and not our people in a truly representational way leads to disunity,” Wale pointed out.

“Such disunity is facilitated when government sides with loggers and miners against the interests of land and resource owners,” he added.

“When indigenous Solomon Islanders are squeezed out of businesses that should be reserved for them – and government does nothing about it, that breeds discontent and threatens national unity.”

He continued:

“When government speaks and acts as if there is a level playing field in the economy when the odds are stacked against indigenous Solomon Islanders – there is discontent that threatens unity.

“When taxis, buses, second hand shops, fish & chips shops, even betel nut, and small hawker licenses are operated by foreigners and non-indigenous people, right under the government’s nose – there is discontent, and unity is threatened.

“When economic power is almost totally in the hands of foreigners, and indigenous Solomon Islanders are reduced to spectators, that breeds discontent and threatens national unity.

“When government is seen, rightly or wrongly, as making decisions that favor foreigners against Solomon Islanders, that breeds discontent and is a threat to national unity.

“When Solomon Islanders are being systematically and schematically reduced to renters in their own economy, that breeds discontent and threatens unity.

“When young Solomon Islanders come out of the education system with no reasonable expectation of finding meaningful productive work, that breeds discontent and is a threat to national unity. Who should they blame for the lack of meaningful job opportunities? Who should be responsible for creating hope for them?

“When young Solomon Islander professionals are priced out of the property market by an exploitative economy that is loaded against them, that breeds discontent and is a threat to national unity.

“When the government does not bring legislation to reform forestry and mining sectors to remedy existing exploitative practices that impoverish our people, that breeds discontent and threatens national unity.”

Furthermore, Wale said:

“When logging companies contribute cash to support the PM in politics – that not only breeds distrust, it incites hatred.

“When logging companies declare losses for so many years but still operate and government does nothing about it – that breeds discontent and threatens unity.

“When logging companies harvest and export rosewood, kwila and other protected species under mixed red and mixed white and government t does nothing – that breeds discontent and threatens unity.

“When international log prices are high but the determined value set by the government is low so that royalties to landowners and revenue to government is based on the lower amount – this breeds distrust and threatens unity.

“When logging companies operate above 400 meters above sea level and government does little – that breeds discontent and threaten unity.

“When most of the prime land in Honiara is owned by foreigners and non-indigenous Solomon Islanders because that’s how the economy and system is, and government does nothing about it, that breeds discontent and threatens national unity.

“When parents are unable to afford to keep their children at school because education has become too expensive for most Solomon Islanders, that breeds discontent and threatens national unity.

“When a patient goes to a clinic and there is no medicine, that breeds discontent and threatens national unity.

“When government makes promises and does not keep them, that breeds distrust and threatens national unity.

“When the PM appoints ministers to key portfolios to protect or advance certain vested interests, that breeds discontent and threatens national unity.

“When the PM is seen to be too close to loggers and benefits from that relationship, that breeds discontent and threatens national unity.

“When loggers with close connection to the PM now hold licenses under new companies for mining tenements – that breeds distrust and threatens unity. “

Wale said the lack of reforms in these key sectors are put down squarely to these close relationships to the PM and key ministers, and that breeds discontent.

He added that even in caucus, some who do not own businesses or the financial means to be dishing out money to MPs – when they dish out $1,000, colleague MPs wonder how much they collected from outside interests but kept for themselves.

“This breeds distrust right within government, and threatens unity.

“When people politically close to the PM who had no prior financial means appear to become wealthy overnight – this breeds discontent and incites hatred.

“When political appointees go around logging and mining companies soliciting funds in support of the PM – that breeds distrust, discontent and threatens unity.

“When the vast majority of our people remain very poor and a few people at the top become wealthy – that breeds discontent and threaten unity.

“When the people vote and the government that is formed after an election does not reflect that national mandate, that breeds discontent and is a threat to national unity.

“Social, political and economic injustice are the ingredients of disunity.

“And when government merely perpetuates the status quo and business as usual, these injustices are allowed to continue, and discontent festers.

“When individual leaders pursue their interests to the exclusion of these wider national interests, this breeds discontent and threatens national unity.

“These are the real threats to our national unity, not the differences we have in opinions.

“We must have a balanced sense of perspective on these things and apportion weight appropriately,” the Opposition leader stated.

Parliament resumes this morning.