Gov’t to make multimillion$ payment

St Vincent and the Grenadines (CMC):

The St Vincent and the Grenadines government says it will make payments totalling EC$10 million (One EC dollar = US$0.37 cents) to more than 13,000 farmers, workers and vulnerable persons.

A release from the Office of the Prime Minister said 3,247 households will each receive a cash transfer from the World Food Programme (WFP) as a transition from the existing WFP programme to the Soufriere Transitioning Grant for December 2021.

It said that this one-time cash payment covers payments for November and December 2021 and that a similar one-time cash payment will be made by the WFP programme to 171 other households in the red and orange zones who were unreachable during the registration and assessment process.

Income support will also be provided to small business owners, tourism site vendors and school vendors who were affected by the eruption of La Soufriere.

The statement noted that 221 small business owners in the red and orange volcanic zones will receive one-time cash transfers of $1,200 and that the cash transfer will be done in two tranches, EC$800 before Christmas and EC$400 at the end of January 2022.

It said 91 tourism site vendors will each receive a one-time cash transfer of EC$900, to be paid in two tranches before the end of January next year, while 490 school vendors will each receive a one-time cash payment of EC$600, paid under the same timeframe.

The statement said that there will also be a distribution of food packages through community groups and churches, particularly in the red and orange zones.

It said income support totalling EC$2,164,000 will be provided to 2164 farmers in the Chateaubelair, Troumaca and Georgetown districts, and that each farmer will receive EC$1000, representing payments for November and December 2021.