Former banker Patrick Hylton to bat for small business as PSOJ head
Published:Saturday | January 31, 2026 | 12:10 AM
Having spent years at the helm of Jamaica’s largest financial institution, new president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) Patrick Hylton says he will use his experience to pave the way for businesses to access much-needed financing from the country’s banks.
Hylton, a former president and chief executive officer at NCB Financial Group, said he would dialogue with the organisation’s members to better understand their challenges in obtaining financing for their businesses.
“I’m hoping to engage in meaningful dialogue on behalf of all members, particularly the smaller members … to see if we can bridge some of the gaps, to create an alignment around processes and things that we can put in place to facilitate greater access to financial resources on the part of businesses,” Hylton said during his first press briefing at the PSOJ’s offices in St Andrew on January 29.
Earlier this month Hylton succeeded Metry Seaga, who served as PSOJ president for three years.
Established in 1976, the PSOJ is a national organisation of private sector associations, companies and individuals which works to promote a competitive and productive private sector.
Hylton, like other recent private sector leaders, emphasised the cutting of red tape, greater use of technology and improved productivity to drive growth.
He stressed the need for Jamaica to overcome its small size and develop products at scale for the global market.
“I think it is difficult to attain and sustain growth in an environment that has only three million people. So we have to find a way to break through those barriers and to engage the world.
We have seen other countries around the world successfully do this, and I don’t think it is beyond us if we put the kind of effort and focus on it, as we have done with other things,” he said.
Citing the Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC), which successfully monitored the Government’s economic reform measures and fiscal performance for more than a decade from 2013, Hylton suggested that a similar body could be established to focus squarely on the growth agenda.
This body, he said, would bring together government, opposition, private sector, and social partners in a disciplined framework.
“We need to discuss this further internally, of course, before putting it forward as an official position, but I had the benefit of being one of the original members of EPOC when it was established many years ago, and I saw the benefit of it, as many of us have seen, and if something works that well, I think we should utilise it more,” he said.
Despite a relatively stable currency, falling debt-to-GDP ratio and low unemployment, Jamaica’s growth rate is one of the lowest in the Caribbean, averaging just over one per cent over the past decade.
An advocate of digital transactions over the use of physical money, Hylton said using cash is an inefficient, expensive way to do business.
“I’ll tell you a secret, I don’t even have a dollar on me right now. So, I’m not only speaking of it, I’m living it in a real sense. I think that [cashless transactions] can make a huge difference to the efficiency of how people do business. It helps people to get more comfortable engaging with technology,” he said.