The Imam Bacchus Ground, Affiance, Essequibo Coast, will be the venue for a series of sports activities to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the National Milling Company (NAMILCO).
The activities, which involve cricket and football, will take place over the weekend and according to the organisers, for NAMILCO’s 50th anniversary, exercise books will be given free of cost to children at the ground.
According to NAMILCO Marketing Consultant Affeeze Khan, the cricket match will take the form of a 20-overs-aside affair with the two teams – NAMILCO XI (Thunderbolt Flour Power) taking on an Imam Bacchus team (Bacchus Bull)— for the top prize of $50,000, a trophy and medals for the winning team, but only trophy and medals for the runner-up team.
In football, two teams from Essequibo, with the approval of the Guyana Football Federation— Henrietta Under-17 will take on Dartmouth Under-17 in a specially arranged match with the winning team to receive $50,000, a trophy, and medals, while the losing team will only receive a trophy and medals.
Being Guyana’s largest facility of its kind, NAMILCO has greatly enhanced the nation’s ability to produce and export flour rather than to import. While in 1969, the mill was producing 3,300 hundred-pound sacks of flour daily, they are presently producing 240 metric tons of wheat per day, with 136 employees. It exports its produce to Brazil, Canada, Antigua, Barbados and other locations. Today, they are producing, amongst other items, the Thunderbolt All Purpose Flour, Maid Marian Self-Rising Flour, and Maid Marian Pholourie Quick Mix.
Prior to the incorporation in 1969 of the National Milling Company of Guyana Inc (NAMILCO), a subsidiary of Seaboard Corporation of the USA, Guyana imported flour from various suppliers. Seaboard Corporation based in Shawnee Mission, Kansas City, USA saw an opportunity to set up a flour mill in Guyana and negotiated with the Government in 1967 to make this a reality.
