JSE officially launches its Micro Market

Durrant Pate/Contributor

The Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) has officially launched its Micro Market, a new platform designed to provide micro and small enterprises with easier access to equity financing. 

The launch, which was held at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel in Kingston earlier this week brought together government leaders, members of the Diplomatic Corps and industry stakeholders. 

In his opening remarks, JSE CEO Livingstone Morrison emphasised that the new market is the result of broad stakeholder collaboration and spoke of the JSE’s core mission of providing a fair, transparent, and efficient platform for capital formation.

Thereby enabling Jamaica’s smallest enterprises to access investment opportunities while supporting business formalisation, wealth creation, and economic growth. 

Morrison recognised key partners in the continued development of this market, saying, “This partnership is especially valuable as we search together for opportunities to incentivise business formalisation, as a means of raising capital, fueling employment, and contributing to our broader economic growth and development objectives.”

All hands went on board

He remarked that it took the entire stakeholder community to get this done, recalling that the JSE established a Micro Market Steering Committee following last year’s announcement by the minister of the planned establishment of a micro market. 

The committee comprised representatives from key public and private sector entities, including the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Companies Office of Jamaica, Jamaica Business Development Corporation, Development Bank of Jamaica, capital market stakeholders, professional service firms and business support associations.

In addition, five specialised Sub-Committees were established to support the effort: 

1. Policy, Regulatory & Governance Oversight 
2. Product Development & Technology Enablement 
3. Government Support 
4. Communication, Marketing & Public Awareness 
5. Issuer Development & Handholding.

“New companies continue to come to market. Capital continues to be raised. And a steady stream of Jamaicans — many investing for the first time — continues to find, in the exchange, a transparent and accessible way to build wealth alongside the companies they believe in, Morrison told the launch pointing out that since the start of 2026, one new company, Woodcats International Limited, has listed on the JSE, bringing approximately 2.4 billion units in shares to the market with another company currently in the process of listing. 

Four preference shares and two corporate bonds were listed alongside it with a combined 110 million units. Sixteen government bonds also came to market, totalling approximately 843.7 billion units, with entrepreneurs and established businesses alike continuing to see the Exchange as the natural home for patient capital. 

In conclusion, the JSE boss emphasised that it is in this same spirit that the Micro Market is being launched as an extension of the exchange’s purpose, widening access to capital formation for the smallest enterprises among us, in a manner that is just as fair, transparent, and rules-based as every other market we operate.