BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The newly established medicinal hashish business is dealing with a banking hurdle, with native industrial banks refusing to permit accounts for companies within the sector, says Performing Chief Government Officer of the Barbados Medicinal Hashish Licensing Authority (BMCLA) Shanika Roberts-Odle.
Addressing the beginning of the two-day BMCLA-organised BAJCAN Hashish MedCon and Expo on Friday on the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre on the outskirts of the capital, she stated the reluctance of conventional banks to work with hashish companies was a serious hurdle.
“Most of you possibly can’t get a checking account, can’t get your funds moved from one place to a different, and it creates lots of points. It is likely one of the key issues that’s delaying the beginning of a number of of our licensees,” she stated.
“I’ve met on three separate events with the Barbados Bankers Affiliation, and on these events, they’ve politely however firmly instructed me ‘no.’”
To make issues just a little simpler for hashish companies, the BMCLA signed a memorandum of understanding with a neighborhood digital cost firm cash on Friday.
“Cash has emerged as a associate to deal with the native banking points. We can be working collectively by means of this MOU to create an answer permitting Barbadians to pay payments and workers and transfer their financing within the Barbados construction,” the CEO stated.
“Whereas we haven’t utterly solved the banking situation—completely, we haven’t—it does convey us nearer and permit us to maneuver cash regionally.”
Odle stated BMCLA would proceed to battle, advocate, and agitate for change.
“Concern can’t be the enemy to progress, and positively not for the medicinal hashish business,” she instructed the viewers.
Performing Minister of Agriculture Wilfred Abrahams, who additionally addressed the occasion, expressed hope the banking hurdle could be overcome.
“The fact is that sooner or later, the banking sector will are available in line. Till that occurs, you need to do what you need to do to make the dream work,” he urged the business gamers.
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