This year’s September celebrations should be particularly nationalistic in nature considering what the government has done most recently. On August 24, the Prime Minister and the Government of Belize took the steps necessary to nationalize one of the country’s greatest money earners, BTL.
In taking back Belize Telemedia Limited, the people of Belize will be given an opportunity to own part of a company that for years now has been giving so much to a single individual through his so called charitable trusts. Now that that is being changed, hundreds if not thousands of Belizeans can now opt to buy into BTL. With that taking place, the wealth will be evenly distributed to the Belizean people.
And it is no exaggeration to say this, after all under the previous owner of BTL almost half a million dollars was being paid out of the company in management fees on a monthly basis. The beneficiary of that half million dollars a month is a company called E-com. The payment if we were to understand management fees properly is for the supposed operation of BTL. The problem here however is that E-com would have to justify these payments and truth be told, by all appearances, BTL is staffed with more than competent personnel to operate the company efficiently. So, in reality there was no need to be paying out half million dollars a month. Quick mathematics would tell you that that monthly payment adds up to quite a good bit of change; six million dollars to be precise.
That is just one area in which the people will benefit from BTL’s nationalization. Instead of the six million being paid out to a single company, that money could now be used to either re-invest into the company or to represent profits that would in turn be paid out to the new shareholders of the company. Imagine all that money that was once being bled out of BTL will now remain for the enjoyment of Belizeans. While that is just one example, there are other reasons for feeling a sense of great accomplishment. No longer will the government and people of Belize have to suffer through legal battles with the previous owner of BTL. There is no telling how much money is being saved on that end. Profit sharing too will be a thing of certainty for anyone who owns shares in BTL, every year the company will declare dividends and every year millions of dollars will be paid out to individual shareholders thereby spreading the wealth that in the past accumulated to a single individual.
The scope of the acquisition then is truly nationalistic in nature since the ownership of BTL will be opened to every single Belizean. We must then be proud and rejoice that the Prime Minister took the decision he took. The nationalization having occurred just a few days before the nation celebrates two of its most important accomplishments, the feeling of national pride should be that more amplified. The Prime Minister has given us much more to feel proud of. Truly then the celebrations should be more nationalistic because of that.
