THE roll out of the government’s one-off $150,000 fisherfolk grant will commence in hinterland regions next week, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha has said.
“We will be going shortly into the hinterland, hopefully next week; we will roll out Region Two, Region One will be done shortly too,” Mustapha told the Guyana Chronicle on Friday.

Over the past few weeks, the Ministry of Agriculture spearheaded a number of distribution exercises across Regions Three, Four, Five and Six. These exercises saw more than a 1,000 fisherfolk receiving their monies.
“The process has been fairly smooth so far, I don’t think we have any issues with it. There were some who claimed their names were not on the list and we are verifying it, as long as they are bonafide fisherfolk, they will receive the cash.”

Mustapha also noted that through the distribution exercise, the ministry has been able to establish a registrar of fisherfolk across the country.
“We are now having a registrar; you know a lot of fisherfolks don’t have licensed but now we are getting a proper database,” he said.

In June of this year, President Ali, during a public meeting at Windsor Forest on the West Coast of Demerara 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 the fisherfolk.

“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, 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,” the President had said.