On Tuesday, November 2, the Social Security Board’s Investment committee voted five to four for 50 million dollars from the Social Security Board to be invested for the purchase of shares in Belize Telemedia. The ownership of the shares will entitle SSB to two seats on the telecommunication company’s Board of Directors. It will also secure, conservatively speaking, a 15% return on the investment.
The investment is a significant one for the SSB since the fund has been under pressure recently to get better returns on investments. Currently the board holds 24.96 million dollars at the Central Bank as a fixed deposit. The bank recently gave Social Security Board notice that the seven percent rate of return which the deposit is garnering will be reduced to 2.7% making the BTL investment that much more important and lucrative. In speaking with Prime Minister Dean Barrow on Wednesday November 3, he explained that the money held at the Central Bank will be used to purchase the first amount of shares in BTL. That, he explained, will happen immediately.
The money, however, will be kept at the Central Bank so as not to cause any instability in the system avoiding excess liquidity. The difference that will make up the 50 million dollars will come from SSB’s commercial bank accounts. Commenting on the investment, P.M. Barrow explained that, “they have a duty to try to get the best possible returns so that they can continue to fund pension payments, disability payments- all that Social Security does.”
He notes that in SSB purchasing shares in BTL is important in that “it is the first serious step in terms of taking back Telemedia with respect to the people of this country. Government acquired, government nationalized; but the idea was always to pass on to the Belizean people and Social Security represents a host of small persons. Their investment gives those persons a chance to collectively own a piece of Telemedia.”
Asked whether there has been interest in the shares, the Prime Minister explained that there are a host of persons who are prepared to purchase shares; however, the mechanism by which persons can buy was not fully in place. At its inception, the applications for purchasing were only available at the Treasury Department at the Central Bank; now outlets have been spread across (see ad on Pgs. 7 & 23) multiple locations across the country.
