The HEART/NSTA Trust will seek to increase enrolment in its programmes to 128,255 trainees, with 53,969 obtaining certification in the 2023/24 financial year. Training will be delivered across its network of 26 wholly operated institutions, partnerships with more than 80 Community Training Interventions, enterprise and work-based training interventions, and adult education sites. This is outlined in the Jamaica Public Bodies...

The Students’ Loan Bureau (SLB) is projecting disbursements of $4.24 billion for fiscal year 2023/24. This is $312 million more than the programmed sum for 2022/23, according to the Jamaica Public Bodies Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for the year ending March 2024. The document indicates that while an overall $6.13 billion was budgeted for disbursement last year, the sum...

Chief Executive Officer, Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC), Valerie Veira (left), addresses participants at a recent workshop to raise awareness about the public procurement process held at the JDBC’s Marcus Garvey Drive premises in Kingston.

The Central Bank is reporting that Jamaica’s inflation rate is decreasing. Data from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) show that the rate, which peaked at 11.8 per cent in April 2022, fell to 7.8 per cent in February 2023. Speaking during a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) ‘Think Tank’ on Wednesday (April 5), Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) Senior Deputy Governor,...

The administrators of the digital payment wallet – Lynk – will shortly be launching a new line to its suite business client services, known as LynkBiz. The facility, which has been undergoing pilot testing since October 2022, is a web-based platform that will allow micro, small and medium-sized businesses to accept digital payments seamlessly. These include transactions involving Jamaica’s Central...

There is heightening anticipation for this year’s renewal of the public sector debate competition, for which prizes totalling $2.5 million have been announced. The 2023 competition, which is being staged by the Transformation Implementation Unit (TIU), was launched on Friday (March 31) at the Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston. A total of 20 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of...

Minister with Responsibility for Information, Hon. Robert Morgan, is assuring teachers that the compensation review exercise being done by Government is for the long-term benefit of all public-sector workers. In a discussion with educators at a Mathematics Week expo at the Prospect Primary School in Clarendon on Thursday (March 30), the Minister pointed out that the review has simplified Government’s...

The Senate has approved the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2023, which will enable Jamaica to meet international obligations in countering money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism. The Bill was approved without amendments, today (March 31). It aims to address three of the four outstanding actions agreed in Jamaica’s action plan with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for the...

The Government continues to implement strategies aimed at suppressing organised crime and money laundering, and countering terrorism financing. The move is part of efforts to comply with the international requirements and standards of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, has indicated that when Jamaica was evaluated, “we were...