By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The National Insurance Board (NIB) has paid out over $100m in pandemic unemployment benefits thus far and a decision on whether payments will continue will happen by the end of September.

Brensil Rolle, minister with responsibility for the public service and NIB, speaking ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting yesterday, said: “Thousands of ordinary Bahamians have benefitted from the programme, particularly those individuals who worked in the touristic field and was totally shut down.

“Many of these individuals have not, in the past, contributed to NIB, but they have benefitted through the programme because of the government’s commitment to making sure that those persons had bread on their table and

something to eat.”

The government is funding this extended unemployment benefits scheme by rearranging existing government projects and adjusting departmental budgets.

Discussions on the solvency of NIB have always been a muted matter, with policy makers tending to shy away from answering questions on the matter and not going into specifics of what NIB pays out in contracts and to who and what other financial investments the fund has made and whether these investments are returning to the government the way that it is envisioned.

“That’s the money that the government either makes and have to divert from various other projects and these funds were diverted to ensure that people had something to eat in some way to survive. So many of the projects that the government may have planned had to be put on the shelf until this pandemic is over,” said Mr Rolle.

Mr Rolle also said the number of people still on the unemployment benefits scheme is half of where it started in 2020.

“We know that over 16,000 individuals are now receiving a benefit from the government on a weekly basis… We are roughly at half of the individuals who initially were getting assistance from government.,” he said.

“The numbers fluctuate sometime between 34,000 and 42,000. We are doing $16m every two weeks.”