The Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) is a wholly-owned government institution that provides opportunities to all Jamaicans to improve their quality of life through development financing, capacity building, public-private partnership, and privatisation solutions in keeping with government policy.
In April 2000, a merger of two national development entities, the Agricultural Credit Bank Limited and the National Development Bank, resulted in the establishment of the DBJ. Later in 2006, the National Investment Bank of Jamaica Limited was further amalgamated into the DBJ.
At the DBJ, we provide funding and technical assistance to large projects. We have also expanded and improved our support to include micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME). MSMEs are widely recognised as the engine of economic growth and development, especially in small economies.
While we do not lend funds directly to individuals, we channel aid through a network of Approved Financial Institutions (AFI), such as commercial and merchant banks. Our network comprises of the Jamaica Credit Union League, the National People's Cooperative Bank (NPCB), the National ExportImport Bank, and Micro Finance Institutions (MFI). They provide the initial credit evaluation and loan supervision before on-lending to clients.
The relationships with AFI and MFI are critical to the work of the DBJ as, through these institutions and their island-wide network of branches, our lines of credit are easily accessible.
Our Research, Analytics & Product Development Unit identify market gaps within the MSME sector. The Unit then creates and enhances financial products to fill the identified gaps while developing and maintaining standards, frameworks, models, and policies for product development within our organisation.
The Unit also ensures we understand our role in driving economic growth and know which initiatives to support. We also identify opportunities to finance and facilitate economic growth and job creation while developing impact assessment tools for products and projects. And is also tasked with ensuring that our team has relevant historical, current, and projected economic and financial data to guide decision making while managing our performance reporting.
Contact us to learn more about our development financing and capacity building programmes.
'Facilitating economic growth and development'
