New NTC Secretariat to be commissioned soon

The new building being constructed at the Sophia Exhibition Centre to house the National Toshaos’ Council (NTC) Secretariat will be completed within a week.

This was confirmed by the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, during a recent press conference hosted at the ministry’s Georgetown office.

It was noted that inclement weather had stalled the completion, but with the weather’s improvement, the facility is expected to be completed and commissioned shortly.

“At this point, the building is completed. The building consists of an administrative section, and a dome, which the NTC will use to host their meetings and so on. So, that is completed. What we are doing now is the works in the yard… Casting will be done over the course of the weekend. We’re looking at next week, for the project to be wrapped up,” Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Ryan Toolsiram stated.

He said the building will have accommodation for Toshaos travelling for meetings in the city.

“The upstairs [of] the administrative building will have four self-contained rooms. So, when Toshaos travel from afar to come to conduct business, they have a room that they can stay in before they go back,” he explained.

In 2022, some $100 million was approved for the construction of a new secretariat for the NTC. While the contractor was provided with 12 months from March 2022 to complete the project, several setbacks prevented the timely completion of the project.