Government pledges additional support through the National Energy Poverty Reduction Project
Toriann Ellis / Our Today
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Minister of Science, Energy, Telecommunications, and Transport Daryl Vaz announced that additional support through the National Energy Poverty Reduction Project is underway for persons impacted by Hurricane Melissa.
“I want to speak to the government’s targeted support for vulnerable households. Some of the previously allocated one billion dollars under the National Energy Poverty Reduction Project will be used to assist families severely impacted by Hurricane Melissa.”
This programme, Minister Vaz announced, will be implemented by JSIF between December 2025 and March 31st 2026.
“It focuses on restoring safe electrical access, repairing homes, providing house wiring for regularisation and supporting GER recertification and offering small solar solutions to vulnerable groups. It is expected to benefit thousands of households across seven parishes and 14 priority zones. We anticipate a total cost of 1.479 billion, leaving a funding gap of 479 million and we continue to work through the appropriate mechanisms to close that gap,” Vaz said.
He expressed that, as this is an integral step, an appeal will be made to the Ministry of Finance to allocate based on the Hurricane Melissa allocations.
“Our recovery is advancing steadily, and while the western parishes still face significant work, our teams remain fully engaged, and I want to thank Jamaicans again for their patience and commend the men and women on the ground who continue to restore critical services.
“Also of note as of December 1st, 90.7 of the point-of-sale machines and 87 per cent of the ATMs are now available. That is also huge in relation to people being able to access getting money and other point-of-sale materials,” Minister Vaz continued.
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