More than 450,000 low- and middle-income Jamaican households, consuming up to 200 kilowatt hours of electricity per month, will receive a 20 per cent contribution towards their bill payments over the next four months, Jamaica’s Minister of Finance and the Public Service Dr Nigel Clarke has announced.
The initiative which is being offered under the Jamaican Government’s proposed We CARE Energy Co-Pay Programme, is expected to largely benefit persons earning smaller incomes, including vendors, security guards, housekeepers, household workers, bartenders, waiters, handymen, many occupations in the informal economy and hard-working Jamaicans on minimum wage or just above.
Jamaica’s Finance Minister said the programme, expected to cost approximately JMD$2 billion, is being implemented as a temporary intervention to cushion the impact of higher electricity prices on the most vulnerable.
These increases have been sparked by hikes in global oil prices, largely fuelled by the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
