©️CEDEL Haiti
Cap-Haitien, December 10, 2025.- At the Forum of Entrepreneurship in the Far North, on December 5th, Mrs. Henriette Chaperon and Mr. Pierre Michelet Torrilus, representatives of the Directorate of Supervision of Banks and Financial Institutions of the Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BRH), identified three major obstacles to SME access to finance: a difficult business climate, the absence of guarantee funds and problems of cadastre limiting the acceptance of assets as collateral. They also highlighted the incentives already in place to support SMEs in key sectors of the economy.
According to Ms. Chaperon and Mr. Torrilus, companies are operating in an environment where insecurity, economic instability and institutional weakness complicate investment. The absence of a national guarantee fund prevents financial institutions from covering the risks associated with financing small businesses.
To this are added the problems of cadastre, which make it difficult to verify and value the goods offered as collateral. This lack of legal certainty hinders lending and limits the growth of SMEs.
Despite these constraints, HRB has implemented several programmes for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, accessible through the Industrial Development Fund (IDF) and Sofihdes.
These include:
- Export;
- agriculture;
- production;
- Housing.
For example, the agricultural credit facility has an outstanding amount of 408 million gourdes, while that for export-oriented enterprises (via IDF and Sofihdes) amounts to 1.555 billion gourdes.
Both frameworks stressed the importance of strengthening the regulatory framework and financial supervision, in order to encourage SME-friendly credit practices and to reassure financial institutions.
For HRB, supporting SMEs is about improving their access to finance, encouraging their structuring, and contributing to a more inclusive and dynamic economy.
W.A.
