AS part of efforts to ensure that there is transparency, the verification exercise for fisherfolk, to access the $150,000 one-off cash grant, is expected to be completed within the next two weeks, Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha, said.

“We are at the final stage of the verification exercise. The lists have been placed at the NDC offices countrywide. We have a notice in the national newspapers to advise fisherfolk that they need to go and check their names on the list,” Minister Mustapha explained during a recent interview with the Guyana Chronicle.

Fisherfolks are being urged to visit their respective Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) to verify their names.
“We are advising fisherfolk to go and check to see if their names are on the list and also go to see who are not entitled, so we can have a final transparent list. The final lists have been posted at the NDC and that will be there for the next two weeks.”

Once that process is completed, the final logistics will be sorted out so that a submission can be made to the Ministry of Finance to commence the distribution.
“At the end of the two weeks when we finish this verification, hopefully in another week, we can get all the names agreed on and then I will request the money through the Ministry of Finance,” Minister Mustapha added.

In June of this year, President Irfaan Ali during a public meeting at Windsor Forest on the West Coast of Demerara, had announced that fisherfolk will be the beneficiaries of a one-off grant of $150,000.

President Ali noted that, after the government did a complete assessment of its revenue streams and finances, it determined that the $150,000 grant will be issued to that category of persons.
“We are announcing an initiative for every single person identified; we are going to help you with a one-off grant of $150,000. This is an immediate step that we are taking to assist you, in addition to all that we’re doing to expand the industry,” President Ali said.

The President noted that the grant for the fisherfolk ties in with the government’s commitment to increase support for the agriculture community, as Guyana and the rest of the Caribbean strive to increase the production of food commodities, in keeping with the ‘Vision 25 by 25’ target.

“Our goal is to create the system in which we can increase productivity. We’re working to make Guyana an important part of the food supply to help the whole Caribbean. To do this, we have to invest in every sector and every segment, in developing our productive capacity; that is why we are addressing, today, our fishing industry specifically,” he said.
Some 8,000 fisherfolk have since registered to receive the cash grant.