Community driven entrepreneurial projects slated for 2017

Dec 25, 2016 News

…to target single parents, youths
In 2017, central government, through the Ministry of Social Protection, plans to start an entrepreneurial programme which targets single parents and youths within communities across Guyana.

Minister of Social Protection, Volda Lawrence

According to Minister of Social Protection, Volda Lawrence, the project will focus on entrepreneurial endeavours which promote value chain production systems. During the consideration of the 2017 estimates of revenue and expenditure, Minister Lawrence said that her ministry will be inviting single parents and youths to provide the agency with their projects.
These proposals will be evaluated by a committee of competent individuals before applying financial aid to these projects. The ministry has allocated a total of $100M towards this initiative.
She said that no specific communities have been earmarked as yet to benefit from this programme but indicated that proposals have already been received from Buxton.
Lawrence added that a team has been set up to establish how the programme will be rolled out. According to the Minister, emphasis will be placed on encouraging agro-processing within communities.
According to Lawrence, there was a pilot project which had produced impressive results. She said that from the collection of those proposals, the Buxton project was retained since it will be feeding into another project which is being run through the ministry of Indigenous Affairs since there is a link for providing local materials to create products and creating employment.
She said that this is going to be part of the criteria which the Ministry will use. However, Lawrence said that efforts will be made to ensure that requirements do not lock persons out of benefiting from the programme.
Lawrence said this is of importance since requirements applicable to the far flung hinterland areas may not work on the coast. She said that the ministry is working to ensure that the programme is essentially flexible and can give coverage to persons in any one of the 10 administrative regions.
She also said to the National Assembly that the funding will be given as grants and not loans. As such, Lawrence said that criteria therefore need to be set to ensure all can benefit.
She said that in Region One, women have begun talking about going back to cultivating ginger. According to the Minister, each project will be evaluated on their merit as they go before the committee so as to ensure that they are viable since no returns are expected.

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