The Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines on Thursday June 1 launched its third call for grant proposals from local businesses as part of continued initiatives to provide access to funding to develop local enterprises utilizing modern Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
This activity, which is being implemented by the Ministry of Economic Planning, Sustainable Development, Industry, Information and Labour, falls under the Business Incubation programme of the ICT-Led Innovation component of the Caribbean Regional Communications Infrastructure Program (CARCIP) SVG project.
It provides access to grant funding of up to EC$100,000.
To be eligible, the business must be ICT or ICT-enabled in nature and be a client of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines National Centre of Technological Innovation (SVGNCTI), the approved business incubator for the CARCIP.
The business must be legally registered with the relevant authorities in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, provide counterpart funding of 20% of the cost of the project (which can be in-kind, an equivalent monetary amount or a combination of both), and accept the financial requirements of the program.
To date, 16 businesses, including existing and start-up enterprises have received funding of up to EC$ 150,000 under the Business Incubation Grants programme. A total of over EC$ 1.4 million has been disbursed.
