Will DFC be involved in hemp and marijuana?

Minister Kareem Musa conceded last week that his New Growth Industries ministry is conceptual and in principle, a good concept. It’s the ministry that’s banking on how quickly the legalisation of marijuana legislation can pass. But as you know, the Churches have successfully lobbied and garnered enough signatures to trigger a referendum. We still do not know when that is taking place, but countries in the region are acting fast on this idea to bring economic relief. One of the bodies, that has been a leader in investment opportunities in people and business is the Development Finance Corporation. In our conversation with the incoming General Manager, Henry Anderson, we asked him squarely where the DFC stands on marijuana and hemp. Here’s what he had to say.

Reporter: Let’s say that the climate changes in Belize tomorrow, they go through this referendum process and the legislation is passed to legalize this thing is the DFC willing to be an honest broker, a partner in this new growth industry ? Do you expect that the DFC may perhaps want to be involved ? 

Henry Anderson, Incoming General Manager, DFC: “The best I can say at this point without stepping outside of my pay grade, you put me on the spot, is to say that is something the board would have to look at at that point and also it has to be inline with the funders where we raise our funds from. So you have for example we got a wonderful project well thought out and well researched but of the funding agencies we deal with that’s not something that falls in their portfolios. But certainly it will have to be something that’s looked at at the level of the board and then a policy decision with all the EML sort of implications that will come with that as well.”