By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

PRIVATE investors must take the lead in Bahamian venture capital financing, the Central Bank's governor describing their current participation in the sector as "a joke".

John Rolle argued that private investors, instead of the Government through the Bahamas Entrepreneurial Venture Fund, should be engaged in venture capital and financing local entrepreneurs and start-ups.

Mr Rolle, who was speaking recently at the Rotary Club of East Nassau, argued that the Entrepreneurial Venture Fund would "continue to be a joke in terms of the resources derived from it" in the absence of private capital's involvement.

He said: "We need to find out how we can put the ideas and resources together within the private sector and make them marketable to make money. My personal view is that we have a reliance on the venture capital fund which is government-appointed, and that should not be.

"How can you reconcile the view of the Government being bad with business with the idea that they should fund investments to pick winners and losers of good ideas? What skin does the Government have in the game?"

Mr Rolle added: "Someone should be doing that who can make money and get rich as a venture capitalist. Other than the Government putting the legal framework in place, it requires private capital otherwise it will continue to be a joke in terms of the amount of resources that we get from it."

The Minnis administration has committed to a one-time $5 million capital injection into the government-sponsored Fund. Edison Sumner, the Fund's vice-chairman, previously told Tribune Business that the one-time injection in addition to the $1 million annual subvention would help to address the backlog of applications, noting that some had to be either declined or put on a reserve list due to a lack of funding.

Mr Rolle, meanwhile, said there needed to be a higher level of investment and activity from the private sector to generate higher GDP growth rates.

"We need to find ways to make the Bahamian part of the private sector more enthused, more enabled to make investments or attract investment and, to some extent, that is where some of the what I would call 'baby steps' are being made in the exchange control space," he said.