As the Government’s Community Electrification Project continues to expand, the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) is reinforcing its core mission of serving vulnerable Jamaicans.
Under the Project, JSIF ensures safe and legal access to electricity. Also, beneficiaries are guaranteed a metre panel, two lights, two plugs, two switches, and a connection to the JPS grid, regardless of the size of their home.
Speaking with JIS News recently, Managing Director, JSIF, Omar Sweeney, said the agency’s poverty alleviation mandate continues to guide its work.
“When persons sign up, we are going to do the household verification. If we go to their house and they have a three-storey block and steel house with a jacuzzi and everything in there, then they are not going to get it. But an 85-year-old pensioner who is using a kerosene lamp will get it,” Sweeney explained.
He stressed that the verification process ensures that resources are directed to those who truly need them. The managing director further noted that the initiative also takes a data-driven approach to reach its targeted group through a strong collaboration with the Jamaica Public Service (JPS).
“We go where we know the problem exists, and that’s a big part of what JPS provides to us. JPS has the data and the information where the electricity is being stolen,” he said. “The hardest persons to identify now are in the rural or the sort of suburban-type places where you maybe have only one or two houses. So, those persons will have to come out because our sign-up will probably be near where they are.”
Through the Community Electrification Project, JSIF also reduces fire hazards caused by unsafe connections and wiring. More importantly, the project is creating safer, more dignified living. The programme, which is being implemented by JSIF, in partnership with the Ministry of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport and the JPS, has already connected more than 3,000 households since 2020.
Furthermore, with a recent $1-billion injection from the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, an additional 20,000 households are set to benefit in the current financial year.
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