The National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited’s (NICIL) Special Purpose Unit (SPU) is seeking $30 billion in loans and investments to support the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) as it’s remaining estates.
The funding is expected to cover a four-year period and will provide capital, support infrastructure maintenance and upgrades at Albion, Blairmont and Uitvlugt. The funds are also expected to go towards developing new co-generation capacity for the estate operations and the national electric grid.
One of NICIL’s first acts since assuming responsibility for GuySuCo has also been to abruptly end the life of the old Board of Directors. Coming out of a special Board meeting, a decision was taken to have a new Board installed as of February 14, 2018.
The NICIL Board has also handed down instructions to GuySuCo to freeze all hiring.
NICIL’s Public Relations Consultant, Alex Graham, was quoted in the media outlining that instructions have also been handed down to not renew any employee contracts that are in the process of expiring.
“NICIL has begun working with the management team at the Corporation to implement management changes, some of these changes are already being implemented and more are expected to follow in the coming weeks,” Graham said.
All of this, Graham related, is being done with the full cooperation of the management team of GuySuCo. He related that SPU head Colvin Heath-London, speaking after a meeting between the two teams, had stressed that profitability depended on the teamwork between NICIL and GuySuCo.
