The Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC) is looking to deepen its partnership with the Jamaica Employers’ Federation (JEF) and the Young Entrepreneurs Association (YEA) as it strengthens support for businesses trying to move from start-up to sustainable growth.

Speaking at the official launch of the JEF-YEA Business Development Centre on Monday, September 14, 2026 in Kingston, JBDC Chief Executive Officer, Daenia Ashpole said more attention must be given to entrepreneurs who have successfully started businesses but are now confronting the tougher demands of growth.

Ashpole pointed out that while the JBDC works continuously to make its programmes as robust and responsive as possible, the scale of change needed for Jamaican enterprises requires strong partners. “That is why the collaboration with YEA and JEF matters; it helps more businesses scale, earn, export and see a fair return on the effort they have invested in starting and operating their businesses,” she said.

Continuing, she added, “I think we can say that we have really become great at helping people begin. We are also good at representing enterprise once it has matured. Where we must do more is in the in-between, the messy middle. This is where entrepreneurs need the most practical support, and where the right assistance can determine whether a growing firm survives, scales or fails.”

For growing businesses, she said, the questions quickly become more complex. Owners must begin thinking seriously about people management, negotiation, distribution, supply chain management and the systems needed to run a stronger operation.

Ashpole stressed that increasing sales alone should not be the measure of a successful growing business.

“It is not enough for an MSME to generate more sales; true success is when that growth translates into profit, resilience and a business that can thrive over the long term,” she said. “As an entrepreneur myself, I know firsthand that the questions change once a business begins to grow. At that point, the excitement of starting begins to give way to the discipline of operating.”

The newly opened Business Development Centre is designed to support entrepreneurs, growing firms and established businesses through business facilities, capacity building, professional expertise, mentorship, coaching, employer support and connections to opportunities.

Ashpole said the Centre is well placed to support businesses at different stages because it brings entrepreneurship and employer support into the same space.

“That is why this Centre matters more than would be immediately clear. It places start-up support and employer support in the same building, so that a growing business does not have to leave one system in order to enter another,” she said.

Building On Existing Partnership

JBDC, JEF and YEA have already worked together to support entrepreneurs. Through the Digital Jamaica Project, 24 entrepreneurs were trained in digitisation, an intervention Ashpole said can help smaller businesses become more productive and competitive.

“Technology can help an MSME move from selling locally to thinking globally, from managing reactively to making data-driven decisions, and from simply surviving to building a more productive and profitable business,” she said.

The launch also comes as YEA celebrates its 20th anniversary. The organisation was established through the Jamaica Employers’ Federation two decades ago, making the opening of the Centre a significant reunion of the two organisations at the place where their relationship began.

As the partnership develops, Ashpole said JBDC will be looking closely at the results it produces for entrepreneurs.

“I look forward to advancing those discussions and streamlining our work so that we reduce silos and, in a context of limited resources, ensure that those resources are used well,” Ashpole said.

JBDC currently operates 14 Small Business Development Centres (SBDCs), nine of which operate externally through partnerships. The Corporation is targeting at least 100 MSMEs annually through each external centre, with support aimed at helping firms improve access to finance, margins, revenue and profitability.

“In my first days at JBDC I have said to my team that our work must be underpinned by data we can verify and impact we can demonstrate. I extend that standard to this partnership, and I invite JEF and YEA to hold

JBDC to it in return,” she said.

The Centre operates under the tagline, “Start here. Strengthen here. Scale from here,” which Ashpole said fits closely with JBDC’s own work of moving businesses ‘from concept to market’.