by Pearl Fontaine
Government Information Service
Hon. Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit, is calling on all stake holders to play their part and contribute to the economic expansion of the country at large. The call was made at the Ministry of Finance during Government’s latest bid to further expand and rehabilitate the banana sub-sector.
“What we are hoping is that other stakeholders can partner with us as the AID Bank is doing, recognising that they have a greater national duty than profits. Because what really, we are asking the AID Bank to do something for us with very little being paid back if anything at all.”
The Prime Minister, who is also the Minister for Finance, handed over a cheque for one million EC dollars (XCD$1 000 000.00) to the chairman of the aid bank as part of the rehabilitation process last week.
 Hon. Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit,
hands over check to Chairman of the AID
Bank, Ambrose Sylvester
According to the chairman of the aid bank, last year a total of two million dollars was also mandated to be administered on behalf of the agricultural sector.
“The AID Bank has, in fact, been administering the previous loan in a highly efficient and professional manner and if I may report, to date, out of the two million dollars, some 1.6 million dollars have been approved in loans and 1.2 million disbursed.”
Mr. Sylvester says on behalf of the AID Bank, he is delighted to be a part of this venture.
“This programme, I understand, is targeted towards farmers in the banana subsector. The role of the AID Bank, in particular, the bank will be responsible for actually making disbursements on these loans, collecting payments from the farmers and reporting on the status of these loans. I think that is critically important so that the farmers know that the actual processing of their applications will be done by the Ministry of Agriculture.” |
