$800M in cash grants, $1B in fertiliser for farmers, among new relief measures announced by President

$1.8B in relief measures has been announced for persons living in hinterland communities, as well as farmers by President, Irfaan Ali on Monday. Ali said that the measures, come from the continuous widespread consultation that government has undertaken with Guyanese.

The President disclosed that the funds is being utilised from the $5B that was budgeted to ease the burden on Guyanese in the face of the rise in cost of living. “In order to bring relief to households facing extreme hardship, my government will be providing a special one-off grant of $25,000 to every single household in riverine and hinterland communities. This will place an additional $800 million at the disposal of these households who have been particularly affected by recent rises in cost of living,” President Ali said in an address to the nation.

The President stressed that the announcement of the cash grant follows a slew of previous measures implemented by government to assist Guyanese. Ali also announced that government will be supporting the country’s agricultural sector with the purchase of fertiliser. President Ali noted that this comes on the heels of the rise in the cost of production, which has in turn affected the production for farmers and has translated to increased prices on the market.

“In order to cushion the impact of the rising cost of fertiliser for farmers and to limit the pass through to food prices, my government will be purchasing $1 billion worth of fertiliser for free distribution to farmers for use in their planting and replanting activities,” the President said. He continued, “Considering that fertiliser account for between 15 to 30