Wednesday, July 22, 2015

A panel of experts and policymakers at the Third International Conference in Ethiopia last week gave the nod to crowdfunding — where ordinary citizens invest small amounts of money in businesses, social projects or charitable causes — as a potential source of billions of dollars in financing for developing countries.

Jamaica’s Minister of Finance Dr Peter Phillips, who co-chaired a side-event at the United Nations Financing for Development conference, said crowdfunding could be a “genuinely exciting” way of “democratising finance”.

“We would like very much to look at the possibilities of what could occur using crowdfunding,” Dr Phillips said.

“Access to affordable financing is of central importance, especially if we are to satisfy the development goals which are the heart of this conference. There is the prospect of crowdfunding being a viable solution for helping Jamaica, and other countries, channel financing to small and medium enterprises to grow private sector investment,” the minister said.

Phillips was co-chair of a panel of experts and policymakers at the Third International Conference. It was co-chaired by Commonwealth Deputy Secretary General Deodat Maharaj, who began by setting out the huge potential of crowdfunding to help plug a gap in funding international development goals, which cannot alone be met by established revenue streams.

“For 2014, the total amount of financing raised through crowdfunding amounted to $16 billion. This year it is projected to reach $34 billion. By 2020, the World Bank estimates that developing countries alone will raise $90 billion,” Maharaj said.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Phillips–Crowdfunding-viable-solution-for-Jamaica-_19219336