KINGSTON, Jamaica – Project STAR, a social and economic transformation initiative created by the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) in partnership with the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) says it is seeking to raise J$100 million (One Jamaica dollar=US$0.008 cents).
It said it hopes to achieve the funding through the an Initial Public Offering (IPO) that will be launched on the Jamaica Social Stock Exchange (JSE) on June 22.
Project STAR focuses on reversing poor social outcomes in beneficiary communities and according to JSE Chairman, Julian Mair, the prospectus will be available by the end of this week. He said social shares will be offered at one dollar per unit.
“The minimum threshold will be J$500, meaning that you can own as small as 500 shares each denominated at one dollar It’s important that we put the threshold as low as that, not because we don’t need a lot of money, because we do,” said Mair.
“It’s an ambitious project which requires a lot of money. But we do want to have extreme broad-based support and we do want people to understand that even if it’s only J$1,000 or J$500 or J$10,000, each dollar goes towards its purpose and each dollar is a part of the transformative fuel for this project,” he said.
Ten communities have been earmarked for interventions under Project STAR over the next five years. The initiative has already been rolled out in several east downtown Kingston communities, as well as Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, for seven and three months, respectively, while interventions recently commenced in May Pen, Clarendon.
Mair, who is also co-sponsor and Project STAR’s public funding lead advisor, said the IPO will ensure a very broad distribution of the ownership of the engagement.
“They’ll be reported to as any shareholder would in any publicly listed company. They’ll find themselves with quarterly reports coming into their inbox, [and] they’ll see their ownership of shares represented in the Jamaica Central Securities Depository, which will evidence the ownership of social shares in Project STAR in each investor’s account,” he said.
Mair said investing in Project STAR will not provide investors with financial returns, adding that the dividends will be in the form of transformation and the achievement of the key performance indicators.
“The ambitious nature of this project is that we can make a difference in the trajectory of Jamaica by impacting human capital,” he said.
