President Danny Faure chaired a meeting with local bank representatives this morning, at State House.

President Faure called for the financial institutions to help with diversification of the economy and helping accelerate growth in the micro, small and medium enterprises – as covered in the 2018 State of the Nation address.  This would be primarily in the form of financing for entities seeking to invest in these areas, and for individuals who would like to purchase shares in Seypec, once those are made available later this year.

The other topic on the agenda was the interest rates for loans to MSME’s.  President Faure encouraged the banks to lower those interest rates as well as helping to improve financial knowledge of the population and to encourage more savings and investment.

“I want you to continue playing your roles as banks within the Seychelles economy. As the Head of State, I see you as important institutions that are looking after the money of our citizens and investors. But, you also have an important role as where economic growth and stability is concerned. I call upon you all to help inculcate the culture of savings in the Seychellois citizens and to re-direct our people coming to our banks in the productive and innovative sectors of our economy,” said the President.

The President traced back the main achievements over the past ten years when Seychelles embarked on the Macro Economic Reform programme: macro-economic stability, fiscal consolidation, sustainable debt, sound monetary policy, and much better level of reserves place – an accomplishment made possible by the hard work of everyone in the country, including the banks.  He called for the focus to now be about creating the environment to spur growth and development for the next ten years – and how the banks can help businesses achieve that.

Also discussed were ways in which Government can signal its areas of preferred investment to the banks; constraints of conventional loaning practices for financing start-ups; certain initiatives where the banks would like to work with Government and the Central Bank to help potential entrepreneurs convert their good idea into a bankable and financeable projects; maintaining interest rates for housing and for businesses against a backdrop of increased inflation and tightening of monetary policy; and creating new financial products for the population.

The Bankers’ Association and their members welcomed their meeting with the President and gave their commitment to engaging with established entities as well as budding entrepreneurs to finance bankable projects.  It was agreed that a technical committee would be set up to determine the technical/tangible changes required over the course of the year to bring about improvements in the areas discussed.  The committee would comprise members from several ministries, agencies as well as the Central Bank and the Seychelles Bankers’ Association.