GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – Guyanese of African descent are encouraged to become entrepreneurs, while communities are urged to support them.
The call came from Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton as he addressed an emancipation concert on Saturday night at a predominantly Afro-Guyanese village in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam).
Norton stressed the importance of creating a business class in each village in which villagers buy and sell from each other to generate wealth.
“The African Guyanese needs to focus on business. We need to make all our villages sustainable where people in the village should be able to find everything they want or most things they want in the village,” he said.
Norton, who is the leader of the People’s National Congress Reform and Chairman of A Partnership for National Unity, warned Afro-Guyanese against becoming dependent on handouts adding that “we are operating at a time when there is the tendency for people to give handouts….handouts cannot solve our problems,” he said.
Norton is advocating for a unique system for Afro-Guyanese to establish businesses to counter the problem of poverty.
“What will solve our problems are structured programs to put our people into the business. It is proper employment levels so people can earn and mind their families,” he said.
He also called on villages, parents, and community members to ensure their children get “a good education” as an avenue toward emancipation. “I believe that education is one of the ways to emancipation,” he said.
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