A $3 billion supplementary budget to address issues that are affecting indigenous communities was yesterday announced by President Irfaan Ali.
The announcement came after Indigenous Leaders were asked at the National Toshaos Conference (NTC) on Wednesday to identify issues affecting their communities and then formulate plans to solve those.
The majority of the money will go towards addressing issues in education, health or agriculture.
“All the requests that you’ve made are documented,” he told the toshaos.
From that amount, some $250 million will be allocated towards youth empowerment projects. Bharrat Jagdeo, the Vice President, noted that this means that every Indigenous Community in Guyana can have a youth project that will be funded from the amount set aside for youths.
Ali stated that the supplementary budget, which is expected to be presented next Thursday, stems from consultations with Indigenous Leaders over the first three days of the NTC.
Jagdeo noted that while the cost of living was one of the issues that were mentioned by Toshaos, support towards Indigenous communities will come through the one-off $25,000 grants for riverain and hinterland communities which is a total of $1.2 billion.
Therefore, a total of $4.2 billion is being spent on Indigenous communities aside from the monies catered for in the 2022 budget.
The rise in the cost of living was one of the key issues raised by toshaos at the NTC yesterday, particularly as it relates to the fuel prices.
Lemuel Thomas, the Toshao of Kamarang, brought up the high prices for aircraft to get to remote locations. Thomas said that despite tax exemptions for fuel, people living in the hinterland are still feeling the full impacts of the rising cost of living because of high airfares.
In response, Ali promised the toshaos that dialogue will be held with aircraft owners today so that a solution can be found.
