NASSAU, BAHAMAS — NGO Director Khandi Gibson underscored the national minimum wage hike is not enough to combat the increasing level of need in the country as the gap widens for those living under the poverty line.
Gibson, the Director of Family of All Murder Victims (FOAM), called on the government to match the efforts of grassroots organizations and increase funding.
Her comments come as the country’s Financial Secretary warned about potential headwinds in the economy, like the impact of inflation and a potential recession that could impact tourism.
“We still have people calling us daily and being evicted and homeless, have nowhere to sleep have nowhere to go,” Gibson said.
“We still have people calling here continuously day and night, someone just called me just now asking me if I had any groceries for her 59-year-old mother, with three kids and so the needs are great in this country.”
Gibson is the Director of Family of All Murder Victims (FOAM), and a volunteer with many other non-profits. She said while the increase in the minimum wage is a good gesture that will help to some extent, it hasn’t proven to be enough based on personal experience.
“When you go into the food store with $20 and you only coming out with one bag of rice and one can of corn beef, how could it be of great help? We appreciate it mind you, but it is long overdue, we appreciate that but the cost of living has gone up,” she said.
“You increase minimum wage right but then BPL gone up. You increase minimum wage and gas up, you increase minimum wage but the food store bill gone up. Everything gone up […] and you have VAT.”
The NGO director said that in recent months she has been bombarded with phone calls, emails and what’s app messages from people in need of food, clothing, and shelter and as it stands, she and other small grass-root NGOs need more help from the government in funding to sustain regular donations.
“I have men calling for grocery, you hear me? Men, calling for groceries,” Gibson continued.
“It used to just be women, women and their children, now men are calling […] I know men have pride.
“When the big NGOs close a certain time, the grass root NGOs open 24 hours with no funding. […] Ain’t nobody giving you no gas money to say, pick up so and so Coral Harbor or wherever they live to put them in a safe spot until Social Services open up the next day […] so we are asking the government to match our efforts.”
Financial Secretary Simon Wilson was asked about the threat of a recession and its potential impact at a press briefing on Friday.
The country’s fiscal deficit went down in the first quarter, and Wilson said officials expect the trend to continue but noted there may be some friction from other sectors.
Wilson said: “We see no reason why it (the trend) cannot continue however, we know there are possible headwinds obviously the global economy represents a risk, elevated prices for fuel which impacts what BPL and the Water and Sewerage Corporation represents a risk that we have to manage very carefully, and the potential of a recession is gonna impact tourism numbers, but overall on the revenue side its been very encouraging […] but we don’t want to celebrate too quickly, its work in progress I say.”
Wilson acknowledged that low-income households would likely be impacted the most by a potential recession.
“Well obviously, if you have a recession the impact is always felt at the lower income level,” he said.
“Right now if you look at the Bahamian economy, the economy is strong and robust, but obviously there’s always a concern of the persons in the lower percentile. So that’s where we feel, they would feel any pressure, persons who are in the margin.”
The first quarter performance was attributed to a 9.7 percent increase in revenue collection, according to Wilson at Friday’s press briefing.
However, Free National Movement (FNM) Chairman Dr Duane Sands took issue with the government’s tone in celebrating the milestone when it stands in stark contrast to the reality faced by many in the country.
“Grocery prices are going up and it’s interesting that as the public finds it more challenging to survive, here we see our government gloating about how much VAT revenue they’ve collected,” he said.
“They’ve certainly not stopped spending, they’ve certainly not stopped traveling so let’s see how this thing plays out for the average Bahamian because the misery index in The Bahamas is going through the roof.”
Sands acknowledged that ‘headwinds’ are approaching based on international economic forecasts; however, he believes that Bahamians will have to foot a significantly higher cost of living due to ‘ill-fated’ and ‘misguided’ choices of the Davis-led administration.
“The pain will start as people look at these bills (service charges) and ask the question: ‘What the you know what’,” Sands said.
“They are going to spin and tell people, suck it up for a little while, better days are coming, and so on and so forth. Hope is not an effective fiscal strategy, and so having dropped the ball. having created pain, this administration is going to pretend as if they had nothing to do with it, that this is beyond their control and that the pain the people are feeling is not real.”
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