NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (May 15, 2023) — Hon. Eric Evelyn, Deputy Premier of Nevis, issued an urgent call to young persons on Nevis to be prudent with their finances and to begin saving.

The Deputy Premier was at the time delivering remarks at the 2nd Annual Financial Management Workshop on behalf of Hon. Mark Brantley, Premier and Minister of Finance in the Nevis Island Administration.  The event was hosted by the Premier’s Ministry in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA), at the Malcolm Guishard Recreational Park on May 10, 2023. There were more that 30 youths between the ages of 18 – 35 in attendance.

“You, as young people, you must begin to get into the habit of saving. You cannot spend all of the money that you get at the end of the month. You must be able to save. We don’t know where sickness is, and when you have a little money some of you here, I’m sure, would have the experience of relatives, and once you get sick that money just whittles away, and so you must be able to save for a rainy day,” he said, adding that the workshop would help them to budget, set goals, prioritise, and to save.

The Deputy Premier also encouraged the participants to plan and be economical if they wanted to succeed, and to pay heed to all they were exposed to at the training workshop.

“If you want to be successful in life, if you want to own your own home, if you want to own a piece of the rock, if you want to get an education, you must be prudent in whatever you do in terms of spending. So I’m urging all of you to take advantage of this very important workshop.

“Sometimes sessions like these which are so important, people have to pay for…It is at your disposal free of cost and so you are asked to kindly take advantage,” he said.

Mr. Evelyn described the workshop as a timely exercise since it was geared toward young people.

“You are our future. Some of you who are sitting here may be up at this podium in the next couple years maybe as a minister of government, as a permanent secretary, you never know, and so it is important that you as young people, the future of the island of Nevis, that you become aware of things like financial management.

“If you are going to be running a country, you must be able to be prudent, and you are going to hear that word quite often. If you want to run your home properly you must be prudent in your financial management. If you want to run your relationship and you want to have a good relationship, you must be prudent in your financial management.  If you want to run your family properly, you have to be prudent in your financial management, and it is very appropriate and timely especially for our young people. Why? Because some of us, the older ones, and of course you as the younger ones, are very guilty, very guilty of reckless spending; extremely guilty of being reckless in the way we spend money,” he said.

The workshop was organized by Hon. Latoya Jones, Special Advisor to the Premier of Nevis on Community Matters, with assistance from the Ministry of Finance. The facilitator was Mr. Laurie Lawrence who served as the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance.  Over the years he has also held many prominent positions in several financial institutions across St. Kitts and Nevis.