Register with the NIS, urges Sutherland

Micro and small business owners are being urged to register with the
National Insurance Scheme (NIS).

Minister of Small Business, Entrepreneurship and Commerce, Dwight
Sutherland, made this plea, while assuring these owners that this
regis-tration would redound to their benefit.

Pointing out the heavy impact the COVID-19 national shutdown had
placed on these establishments in particular, he said these businesses
were given a chance to access a wage subsidy of up to $1,000 over two
months, with the requirement of registering with the NIS.

“The Government wasn’t asking you to be up to date with your NIS
payment. We were just simply asking you to register because some of
the small businesses shy away from it because they are not financially
literate and believe that if they register with NIS, the Government
will come after them for NIS payments. That is not the case. All the
Government wants you to do is to bring these businesses from the
informal business sector. This means we are giving you the opportunity
to become bankable, to improve your credit rating, and to access
financing and financial assistance,” he claimed.

Sutherland also highlighted that signing onto the NIS would allow
better data collection and therefore paint a better picture of the
contribution of these businesses to the island’s economy.

“When you sign onto the NIS you are known, and when we are talking
about the impact on the Micro and Small Enterprises, it gives us more
leverage to come up with an accurate figure as to how these businesses
are doing in terms of generating revenue and their contribution to GDP
and how many employees they have. We are not asking to look into your
books to see how much you are making. We just want to help, so
register with the NIS,” the minister urged.

At the time, he was on tour at the Chickmont Foods processing plant in
Lowlands, Christ Church. (JMB)