Plans are progressing for a Charity Ball to raise funds to assist adolescent mothers to be reintegrated into the school system. The event, scheduled to take place on May 18 at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston, is being organised by the Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation (WCJF), an agency of the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport....

The Government has allocated $24.5 billion to support new projects under the Public Investment Management System (PIMS). Details of the provision are outlined in the 2024/25 Estimates of Expenditure, tabled in the House of Representatives by Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, on February 15. During the upcoming fiscal year, the contingency allocation will...

The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) is reporting that 60 per cent of the notes in circulation are polymer currency. “When we look at the notes in circulation, the number of pieces, it is about 40 per cent that are the old notes. So, it is a 60:40 ratio. We are no longer issuing old notes since last year November,” Deputy...

Persons who wish to cast their ballots in the Local Government Elections on Monday, February 26, can do so between 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Director of Elections, Glasspole Brown, told JIS News that some 6,726 polling stations will be open across the island to accommodate the thousands of Jamaicans who intend to exercise their franchise. “What we would like...

The Government has made letters of possession available for descendants of former sugar workers to give them security of tenure on the old Hampden sugarcane lands in Trelawny. Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Hon. Floyd Green, says the gesture will now enable the beneficiaries to build on the lands free of hassle and any worry that they could be...

The National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) is partnering with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to host a one-day seminar aimed at empowering students to become better environmental stewards. This collaboration will see pupils from 15 secondary schools across the Ministry of Education and Youth’s Region 3, converging on the grounds of Knox College in Spaulding, Clarendon, on Thursday,...

The Government of Jamaica will be investing more than $2.63 billion to purchase buses to boost the Jamaica Urban Transport Company’s (JCTU) fleet. As contained in the 2024/25 Estimates of Expenditure, tabled recently in the House of Representatives, a total of 100 compressed natural gas (CNG)-fuelled buses will be acquired. The procurement process commenced in December 2023, with the placement...

Senior Registrar in Psychiatry at the St. Catherine Health Department, Dr. Jordan Eaton, is encouraging persons who think they may be struggling with mental illness to seek help at a medical facility. Speaking during a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) ‘Think Tank’ on Thursday (February 22), Dr. Eaton pointed out that help is available in the public health system as well...

Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Hon. Olivia Grange, addresses the Jamaica Creative Career Expo held at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston on Wednesday, February 21. Over 1,000 senior high school and tertiary students as well as creative practitioners and entrepreneurs attended the Expo, organised by the Ministry’s Jamaica Creative Unit.