Category: BusinessDayTest

The leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP), Dr. Godwin Friday, Thursday ended 25 years of being in the political wilderness after voters in St. Vincent and the Grenadines gave his party an overwhelming victory in the general election and in the process prevented the longest serving government leader of extending his hold on power.

Preliminary results show that the NDP won at least 11 of the 15 seats in the general election putting a halt to outgoing Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves’ desire of leading the Unity Labour Party (ULP) to a sixth consecutive victory.

Gonsalves was among the ULP candidates to have retained their seats, but among the casualties were his son and Finance Minister, Camillo Gonsalves, who lost to to the NDP’s Laverine Gibson-Velox.

‘I believe the voter is always right and the voice of the people is the voice of God and even inmy disappointment today, I hold fast to those beliefs as the foundation of our democracy,’ the outgoing Finance Minister said, congratulating Gibson-Velox on her victory

‘They said sometimes you win and sometimes you lose and I am definitely learning a lot tonight,’ he added.

Barbados has signed a partnership agreement with Nigeria to advance local pharmaceutical production, strengthen regulatory cooperation, and expand regional market access across the Caribbean, Latin America, as well as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between Barbados Pharmaceuticals Inc. (BPI) and Nigeria’s Presidential Initiative for Unlocking the Healthcare Value Chain (PVAC), establishing a comprehensive framework for collaboration in four areas, namely industrial capacity and human capital development, market access and market shaping, clinical trials cooperation and regulatory, financing, and policy alignment

Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate (left) and Barbados’ Minister of Health, Dr. . Jerome Walcott, sign the Memorandum of Understanding in Abuja, Nigeria.

A government statement said that the agreement signed in Nigeria, follows months of high-level engagements, including ministerial discussions held between Barbados’ Minister of Health, Dr. Jerome Walcott, and Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate..

It said that the accord builds on ongoing work with AMA Medical Manufacturing, a leading Nigerian biopharmaceutical company exploring the establishment of a manufacturing facility in Barbados.

Walcott welcomed the partnership, noting that it aligns with the vision articulated by Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who has repeatedly called for a transatlantic pharmaceutical bridge across Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America.

‘This MOU represents a decisive step in strengthening health sovereignty for both regions. Barbados sees Nigeria as a strategic partner in advancing industrial capability, technology transfer, and shared health security across the Global South,’ Walcott said.

Pate emphasised Nigeria’s commitment to expanding local production under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Executive Order aimed at achieving 70 per cent domestic production of essential medicines and medical devices by 2030.

‘This partnership opens new pathways for investment, innovation, and regional integration. Nigeria is pleased to join hands with Barbados to shape a future where our nations produce the medicines our populations depend on,’ said Professor Pate.

Under the MOU, there will be the development of a Barbados-Nigeria pharmaceutical skills pathway, including sterile manufacturing, and regulatory training as well as reciprocal market entry into CARICOM/LATAM for Nigerian producers and ECOWAS for Barbados-based manufacturers.

The partnership also advances ongoing discussions with AMA Medical Manufacturing, which is assessing the establishment of a biomedical and IV fluid manufacturing facility in Barbados, creating the first Africa-Caribbean pharmaceutical production corridor.

The Court of Appeal has upheld a seven-year jail sentence imposed on a woman who blinded and disfigured a woman she had suspected of having an affair with her husband.

Magistrate Simone Brown, had imposed the maximum sentence on Pandora McKenzie, 68, who had been charged for causing dangerous harm

In dismissing the appeal, Justices Bernard Turner, Gregory Smith and Deborah Fraser, noted that the attack was premeditated.

In the ruling read out by Justice Turner, they said that the evidence indicates that the appellant lured the woman to the location under the false pretense of wanting to have a conversation with her, ‘while instead waiting with the corrosive substance concealed in a cup.’

The Appeal Court said that McKenzie threw the substance directly in the woman’s face and then armed herself with a cutlass.

‘In these circumstances, the learned magistrate was entitled to justify the offense as among ‘the most serious incidents’ of its kind, as she would have taken judicial notice of the extent of [the victim’s] injuries.’

During the trial, the court heard that on November 8, 2020, McKenzie’s husband invited the victim to his home in Grand Bahama with the intention of convincing his wife that they were not romantically involved.

McKenzie had agreed to meet her alleged romantic rival and the husband and the woman denied that they were having an affair.

However, as they spoke, McKenzie threw contents of a metal cup in the woman’s face and then stood over her with a cutlass. The husband was able to disarmed hios wife, preventing further injury to the woman.

McKenzie appealed the sentence on the ground that it was unduly severe, with her attorney, Bjorn Ferguson, arguing that the magistrate erred when she described the case as the ‘worst of the worst’.

By contrast, the prosecutor Ashely Carroll said the sentence fit the crime.