Young Entrepreneurs Urged to Prepare for Opportunities Under NARRA

Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Hon. Aubyn Hill, is encouraging young entrepreneurs, including students, to prepare for business opportunities that will become available through the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA).

He made the call while addressing student innovators participating in the Know Your Numbers Competition at the University of Technology (UTech) Technology Innovation Centre (TIC) in St. Andrew on Monday (April 20).

“There is money to be made, and I am imploring you, as young entrepreneurs and young students, to look out for these contracts,” he said.

NaRRA will serve as the central, single point of coordination for post-hurricane reconstruction, aiming to eliminate bureaucracy, fragmentation, and project delays.

It will be a centre of technical excellence for project preparation and delivery, ensuring that the quality of national plans aligns with the scale of the country’s ambitions.

Debate on legislation to establish the entity commenced in the House of Representatives on April 14.

Projects to be implemented under NaRRA include the rebuilding of roads, bridges, drainage systems, schools, and health facilities, climate-resilient reconstruction and relocation of communities from high-risk zones.

NaRRA will oversee the transformation of Black River and Falmouth into planned, climate-ready urban cores, construction of a new Kingston Public Hospital and the Government Campus at National Heroes Circle, the Vernamfield aerodrome and near-port logistics expansion at the Port of Kingston.

Minister Hill said that these large-scale projects will be awarded to Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contractors, who will require subcontractors and services such as food and transportation, creating opportunities for enterprising Jamaicans.

“They may need a class-one contractor to serve as a subcontractor for one of the roads,” he pointed out, adding that local expertise and skills in accounting and engineering will also be required on these projects.

Minister Hill said that the Government has put measures in place that will ensure that entrepreneurs in Jamaica are “not be bumped out of opportunities”.

He noted that the Public Procurement (Set-Aside) Order, 2019 mandates that 20 per cent of public procurement contracts be given to registered entrepreneurs and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

The Minister informed that more than 600 MSMEs across 101 industries secured procurement contracts in the past three years with awards of $1.15 billion in 2022/23, $1.18 billion in 2023/24, and $897.37 million in 2024/25.

He said that for this year, there is $3.18 billion from the capital budget to be tapped into.

At the UTech TIC Know Your Numbers Competition, six registered student companies pitched business solutions for common problems in Jamaica with the top three awarded funding to implement their business ideas.

Andre Thomas from Axpire Solutions, who delivered the top pitch, received the Ministry’s Innovation Award of $500,000.

Dewayne Tennant, owner of JIG Entertainment, received the second-place prize of $250,000, while the third-place team of Janelle Smith, Malik Heron and Mark Hinds from Endzah, took home $150,000.

Source: JIS