The Anguilla Development Board (ADB) is a statutory organization, established under the Anguilla Development Board Ordinance (1978). The legislation was passed in the House of Assembly with Sir Emile Gumbs as the Chief Minister. Actual operations commenced in August 1979, under the Chairmanship of Mr Franklin Connor. Other founding directors of ADB were Mr. Eric Reid (Deputy Chairperson), Mrs Daisy Richardson, Mr. Ambrose Richardson, Mr. Lindsay Richardson and the late Mr. James Beard.

The first manager of ADB was Mr. Albert S. Lake who served ADB until 1990. Thereafter, Mr. Fabian Proctor managed the institution up to 1995. The present manager Mrs. Althea Hodge succeeded Mr. Proctor.

During the period 1979 to 1982, ADB operated within Ministry of Finance, having taken over responsibility for loans previously granted through the Development Finance Loan Scheme. This scheme started in 1976 with a development aid grant of Ł50,000 following recommendations in the 1975 Development Division report on the survey of Anguilla, which indicated a need for a local credit institution to provide soft loans to the small productive sector.

ADB was subsequently relocated to several premises including the upstairs of Albert Lake’s Haberdashery store in the Quarter by the Mahogany Tree. In 1990 the ADB moved to its present location in the Cannon Ball office complex.

With the ADB being wholly government owned, policy matters are determined by a Board of Directors, all of whom are appointed for a three-year period in the first instance, by the Minister of Finance. The Manager, who reports to the Board, is charged with the responsibility for the day-to-day operations and implementation of the policies set by the Board. ADB has a staff complement of eleven persons; the majority of staff members have been with the institution for more than 15 years with one staff member being with the organisation for more than 25 years.
The success of ADB operations over the years is largely attributable to the qualities and attitudes displayed by staff.
According to the enabling legislation, the ADB was established to stimulate and facilitate national development with particular emphasis on productive sector development. In keeping with this mandate ADB operations are concentrated in the provision of financial and technical assistance to the productive sector in areas of fishing, agriculture, tourism and industry. In 1984 in an effort to ensure that future human resource needs can be adequately met ADB begun the provision of low interest funding for courses of study. In 1988 ADB commenced financing for home construction and expansion primarily for low to middle income nationals. In 1994 the Small enterprise Development Unit (SEDU) was established to promote further development of entrepreneurship within the private sector.
ADB raises funds for on lending and traditionally ADB’s main source of funding has been in the form of loans from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). To date, ADB has had five different lines of credit from CDB, totalling EC $36.8 million. The most recent line of funding totals EC $13.5 million which is projected to be fully disbursed over a period of five years (by 2010). ADB has also obtained funds from the Anguilla Social Security Board (SSB). Other major sources included the Government of Anguilla equity contribution (EC$7.3 million) and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office grant (EC $1.1 million).
ADB as the development institution is focussed on investing in development projects, which result in benefits for the wider community. Such development projects are generally characterised as needing long term financing, are relatively risky, generate social and economic benefits and are less likely to be considered bankable by the commercial banking sector.

The broad aim of ADB is to stimulate and facilitate the economic development of Anguilla through sustainable private sector investment programmes. To accomplish this ADB aims to:
 Finance technically sound as well as financially and economically viable projects.
 Enhance the human resource capacity of Anguilla by providing financing for training at the secondary and tertiary levels to upgrade technical, vocational and professional skills;
 Enhance the level and quality of home ownership, particularly among low and middle-income owners;
 Improve the viability of businesses in the micro and small-scale enterprise sector by providing credit as well as entrepreneurial and technical assistance for these enterprises.

Since its inception ADB has financed projects in excess of EC$141million for approximately 2,400 projects. Throughout the Anguilla business sector are severally locally owned enterprises that have benefited significantly from ADB assistance and have graduated to become leaders in their respective sectors, at the same time impacting on the national economy.

Productive Sector - The involvement of ADB in financing the fishing, agriculture, manufacturing and tourism sectors was a natural outcome based on the importance of the sector to Anguilla in terms of contribution to GDP and employment. Despite the contribution to the GDP and employment, fishermen were less likely to obtain financing from the commercial banks based on the fact that the industry is seasonal, continually plagued by weather conditions and often the fishermen lacked adequate collateral, hence such projects were classified as too risky for the commercial banks. The agricultural sector was reflective of the sporadic rainfall, poor soil conditions. The manufacturing sector continues to be largely been impacted by the lack of adequate natural resources and the significant reliance on the importation on raw materials for production. This sector is one where ADB sought to be a major player during the 1980’s, in areas such as boat building, concrete and block making plants. However, resultant scope of many of these projects led them to graduate from development banking levels to commercial banking levels.

As such ADB with less reliance on the collateral and more emphasis on the relevance of the sector to overall development became and continues to be the main provider of financing for the fishing and agriculture sectors. Whilst the decline in the manufacturing and tourism sector loans is indicative of national trends.

Housing Development - ADB has recognised the importance of housing as an integral part of social and economic development. The overall objective is to provide financing to expand the housing stock of Anguilla by providing affordable and accessible loan financing for first time homeowners. The provision of finance for housing is geared primarily to lower and middle-income earners and in keeping with the broad objectives of ADB of achieving: Poverty reduction, increased worker productivity, Increased domestic savings and promotion of linkages within the economy so as to increase output and employment.
As a result of increased demand for housing loans primarily for the construction of new homes and the upgrade of existing ones, this sector continues to be the dominant component of ADB’s loan portfolio.

Human Resource Development - As at July 2009 an overall total of 383 student loans were approved totalling $24.7m. Persons have qualified in various fields of study including medicine, architecture. Law, business and economics, applied sciences and vocational sciences.

Over the period the demand for student loans has grown significantly as increasing numbers of school leavers seek ADB funding in order to improve their educational levels. The increased human resource requirements of the economy have also impacted on this demand as individuals seek to upgrade technical, vocational and professional qualifications.

The graduates who have returned to Anguilla are currently employed within the following sectors: Tourism related, Banking / Finance, Computer / Engineering, Teaching Profession, Medical profession, Aviation and self-employed entrepreneurs. This has provided much credence regarding the contribution of the student loan programme to the development of the community. This impact entails the overall development of the human capacity, the ability to meet national human resource needs as well as that of poverty reduction.

Technical Assistance - The rationale for the Small Enterprise Development Unit stems from a number of inadequacies and shortcomings within the financial sector, which significantly affected small businesses that are considered as critical drivers of the economy, such as:
• Inadequate technical assistance
• Small size and lack of productive capacity
• Human resource deficiencies
• Low research and development capacity
• High cost structures
• Significant financial constraints

The emergence of SEDU sought to address a number of these issues as this unit was designed to assist existing and potential entrepreneurs with information, advisory services, to provide training programs as well as to assist with the preparation of business plans and financial proposals which have been termed as technical assistance. SEDU also seeks to provide networking opportunities with local and regional organizations that have similar development objectives targeted at micro and small enterprises.

Whilst the impact of ADB on national development is significant, and we take great pride in the contribution of the institution, we are mindful of the challenges that face us, thus we are making every effort to position ourselves to meet these challenges. With the critical support of the Government of Anguilla, and other key stakeholders, ADB will continue to grow and continue to make significant contributions to the sustainable development of Anguilla.

As we recognise the milestone of 30 years of operation, and we plan for the future direction of the institution, we must acknowledge all those who have contributed to ADB over the years – the various Government ministers and officials, Board members, borrowers, employees, partner institutions and the general public. We look forward to your continued support as we all strive as “partners in prosperity” to ensure we remain true to our mission of “stimulating and facilitating sustained national development”.

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