PM Andrew Holness Announces Grants, Loans For Reggae And Dancehall Stakeholders
Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced an annual “modern music grant” for Reggae and Dancehall entertainers and musicians, to pursue what he has described as their “professional advancement”.
The grant was among a series of offerings Holness announced for the entertainment during his contribution to the 2022/2023 Budget Debate in the House of Parliament, where he also declared that after two years, on Friday, he would lift all measures under the Disaster Risk Management Act, including the prohibition on entertainment events.
“We will also be establishing a modern music grant to ensure that Jamaica continues its proud legacy of influencing global trends, music, arts and culture. The grant will be awarded annually to four Jamaicans one classical, one Reggae and two from the Dancehall space, from the music and entertainment sector to pursue their professional advancement, whether they are artistes, performers, sound engineer, composers, you name it,” Holness said.
“Madam Speaker, we are supporting opening of the entertainment sector, not just with talk, but with cash,” he told Speaker of the House Marissa Dalrymple Philibert.
According to Holness, he will be working to ensure that a business approach is taken to building the Reggae and Dancehall music, by establishing the institutional framework for this purpose.
“We see the emergence of Afrobeats, and Madam Speaker, Jamaican music, Reggae Music, Dancehall music is the root the foundation. But what do they have over us Madam Speaker? They take a strategic business approach to developing the product. They see it for what it is. It is culture, it is art it is creativity but it is also an intellectual property that can create wealth, and profit and value,” Holness said.
“But we don’t see it in that light… but we need to get past that and see our culture as a business as well that can generate economic growth. So in our 60th year, Madam Speaker, I intend to spend some time on seeing how the government can develop institutions to support our culture and transform our culture into an economic entity,” he said.
According to Holness, he has “the greatest sympathy for the sector” and, as a consequence, had directed the Culture Health Arts Sports and Education (CHASE) Fund to set aside funds to assist music and entertainment stakeholders.
“I don’t only talk about it; I have invested in it. My constituents depend on it,” he said.
“To further support the reopening of the sector I am directing the CHASE fund to make a special $150 million window of support for the entertainment sector. This will be used to help entertainers, musicians, production companies and promoters of festivals and events. More details including criteria for access will be made available shortly,” Holness said.
Holness also said that the island’s Municipal Corporations have agreed to, for the next six months, slash entertainment permit fees by 50 percent and that he had directed that some government owned venues which area at prime locations, cut the fees or make provisions for them to be made available rent-free.
According to him, while “entertainment and culture are big business, this is not always understood, because of the high level of informality of the sector”.
As such, he said the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ), would be establishing an entertainment restart facility totalling $500 million to guarantee stakeholders institutional access to credit. The loans he said, will be on a “commercial basis” and will “come with great facilitation” and would help to “bring the informal entertainment sector finally and firmly into the formal sector”.
He said under the facility, a total of $250 million will be reserved for micro-enterprises and vendors supporting the entertainment industry.
“Micro-enterprises will be able to access loans of up to $750,000 from the DBJ for working capital, equipment and refinancing,” he explained.
An additional $250” million will be reserved for SMEs which will be able to access loans of up to $5 million through approved financial institutions… to be launched in April 2022,” the Prime Minister added.
In continuing his address, Holness said that he has received numerous proposals from people in the music and entertainment sector regarding “specific support, to protect the producers and creators of music such as improvements to intellectual property, trademarks and copyright registration”.
These he said, would be addressed at a “later date” after he and Entertainment Minister Olivia “Babsy” Grange study the proposals, after which they will partner with the sectors.