 The Government of St. Lucia continues to roll out social and economic intervention programs as thousands of St. Lucians grapple with the financial fallout from COVID-19. On Wednesday 14 October 2020, governments signed a memorandum of understanding with the St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited, LUSILEC, giving life to the Electricity Assistance Program. The MOU was signed during a live ceremony on the National Television Network. The initiative provides bill payment relief to qualifying individuals. Honourable Leonard Mantute is the Minister for Equity, Social Justice, Local Government and Empowerment. All is set for the start of this Electricity Assistance Program, which will see the application of electricity bill credits of $75 per month to qualify households for a period of six months from October 2020 to March 2021. I view this as another welcomed intervention, which I am sure will be very much appreciated by beneficiary households. On behalf of the Ministry of Equity, I wish to express profound gratitude to everyone who contributed to the design of this initiative and who I am sure will assist with the implementation. Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Hon. Alan Chastney says the Electricity Assistance Program was designed to add value to the lives most affected by the pandemic. The initiative offers assistance to groups of persons we believe are extremely vulnerable and in need of extension of support by the government. The program offers a credit to participants that is in line with the average monthly consumption of low-income households. Persons who meet the criteria and have decided to opt into the program will receive the nominal credits on their September 2020 to February 2021 electricity bills. These credits would be applied by Looslick and paid for by the government of St. Lucia. We anticipate that approximately 5,000 to 6,000 St. Lucia's will benefit under this program. The government has embarked upon a broad-based consultation over the past six to eight months and has worked closely with public sector agencies, private sector entities, civil society, not-for-profit organizations, and statutory bodies to develop various strategies and interventions. One such organization is the St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited. We are very pleased today to participate in this signing ceremony which is symbolic of our partnering with the Electricity Company Services to make this intervention possible. On Thursday 15th October 2020, Looslick will receive the first list of qualifying individuals for the relief program. Trevor Luisi is the managing director of Looslick. The efforts at developing the framework and arrangements pertaining to the EAP commenced in late June, and here we are today to sign off on an MOU that will guide the process. I want to thank the government of St. Lucia for initiating this program, but I need to say a special thanks, and I hope I don't offend some of the other persons. A special thanks to Mr. Jonai Elios from the Ministry of Finance, and Mrs. Irene Gospel from the Ministry of Equity for the tireless efforts at ensuring we go to this point today. Managing director of Looslick, Trevor Luisi.