Facing huge deficits that could impair its financial sustainability, the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) is eyeing investing overseas but Minister of Finance Winston Jordan has urged that it look closer to home in areas such as the housing sector that could prove lucrative.
“As we contemplate this long term investment policy, we must be careful about what we invest in. You know Guyanese got this thing yuh call ‘big eyed’? You know the story of the dog and the bone? When the dog go to the pond and he see the bigger bone in the pond and he drop that one [he had]? What happened? He lost corn and husk,” Jordan said, as he gave the feature address at a NIS 50th Anniversary event last Wednesday.
“We have to be careful. Yes, the investment today in treasury bills is returning virtually nothing, but at the same time, it is safe. So I would pick a bone with the chairman about sending our money into lands where we don’t have that security. As I whispered in his ears, two financial institutions in Guyana had invested in secure bonds in a certain CARICOM country and now they are impaired. We have to be careful,” he emphasised.
