Shulinab Village gets $10M to supply clay bricks for Reg 9 $1.8B housing development

– 2,000 part-time jobs programme to be launched soon

As the Government continues to push housing development in hinterland communities, President Dr Irfaan Ali has announced a $10 million investment for Shulinab Village to supply clay bricks to be used for the construction of homes in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo).
The Head of State and a team of Cabinet Ministers along with other officials are on a three-day visit to communities throughout the region.
On Saturday, President Ali told hundreds of South Central Rupununi residents gathered in Shulinab Village that his Government would ensure that more opportunities are available for their economic advancement.
Against this backdrop, he explained that the $10 million project will see an order placed for the production of 300,000 blocks from the communities in South Central Rupununi to support the hinterland housing programme.
“Your community advancement is the most important thing for us,” the Guyanese leader assured residents.

Shulinab and other satellite villages in the vicinity are known for producing clay bricks that are commonly used for construction in the region.
This investment, the President said, is another demonstration of providing equitable opportunities for all Guyanese.
“I’m nothing more than your chief servant…and we must as far as possible solve our human resource problem from right within the villages,” the Head of State noted.
This clay brick initiative comes just one day after President Ali announced on Friday in Lethem that some 600 landowners in Region Nine will be getting $1 million each to help start construction works on their homes.
With a typical house in the region costing $3 million to build, the Government has also arranged for the additional $2 million in financing to be made available by the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) and New Building Society (NBS) at 3.5 per cent interest rate.

Beneficiaries of this initiative will not be required to submit any collateral to the banks and will pay instalments as low as $14,000 monthly.
According to President Ali on Friday, these two initiatives alone amount to some $1.8 billion in investments being plugged into the housing drive in Region Nine.
“Think about what that will now do for the businesses. And we have also attached a condition to this …that all the materials and the labour must be procured locally.

So the businesses will benefit, the communities will benefit, the labourers would benefit, the skilled workers would benefit, the block makers would benefit – you all will benefit as a result of the investments the Government is making,” he stated.
It was revealed that from 2020 to now, the Housing Ministry has distributed some 400 house lots to residents in Region Nine and has already spent over $669 million for related works.
The President pointed out that no other Government has done as much for hinterland and its people’s development as the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).
In fact, he outlined that in addition to these new measures, residents in the region will also benefit from other measures tailored to benefit hinterland communities including the hinterland housing programme, the hinterland home improvement project, the hinterland sanitation project in which Government is setting up septic tanks for households, as well as the programme that is targeting roof replacements in hinterland communities.
Moreover, Region Nine will also gain from other measures the Government has introduced to push its housing drive.
Last month, President Ali announced a special housing initiative that will see Government constructing homes for landowners at varying values with easy financing through the banks.
This is in addition to measures previously rolled out including distribution of free building materials and slashed interest rates on bank financing for homeowners along with the removal of VAT on certain construction materials such as cement, sheetrock and concrete boards.
Meanwhile, during Saturday’s visit to Shulinab, the Guyanese leader also handed over four tractors to surrounding communities, a cassava mill, a chainsaw, brush cutters, fertilisers, seeds and sport equipment.
These items were in response to requests made at the recently held National Toshaos Conference (NTC) and from letters sent.
According to the Head of State, the “items will help in the empowerment of communities and building of capacity”. He further assured residents that he will continue to make himself and his Cabinet available for further discussions on resolving issues in the community.
President Ali was joined by Amerindian Affairs Minister Pauline Sukhai, Minister within the Housing and Water Ministry Susan Rodrigues, and Local Government and Regional Development Ministry Nigel Dharamlall.
The team has held a series of meetings at other locations including Sand Creek and Aishalton in the Deep South Rupununi, where residents were updated on the Government’s development agenda including the provision of 2000 part-time jobs for Region Nine residents.
In order to cushion the rising cost of living, the Government has been rolling out the part-time job initiative in various regions across the country. Under this programme, persons are employed on a temporary basis in various fields within the public sector and paid $40,000 monthly.
Already, some 10,000 persons have benefited from the part-time job initiative throughout Guyana.
These meetings in the Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo region over the past two days, which will continue today, also served as a platform for village leaders to raise additional issues affecting them and make requests for critical services.