SSB Moves Toward Major BEL Debenture Purchase

The Social Security Board is looking to make a pair of major investments totaling sixteen million dollars, and tonight we take a closer look at what that means for contributors. One of those investments is a six‑point‑two‑million‑dollar move into Belize Electricity Limited, an offer that comes with a one‑million‑dollar discount and the promise of more than three million dollars in interest over ten years. But with BEL reporting nearly ten million dollars in losses in 2024, is this a smart play for SSB? Public Relations Manager Vanessa Vellos walked us through the board’s thinking.

 

Vanessa Vellos, Public Relations Manager, Social Security Board

“As you know in terms of debentures, debentures are different from shares, so if the business is not successful they still have to pay the debentures. The beautiful thing about this particular investment is that when we get this money back we will get back the face value of this investment of seven million plus, even though we paid at a discounted rate. The country’s economy is growing and there is this increase in demand for electricity. BEL in the past has had healthy profits and with a growing economy and the fact that demand will keep growing then it makes sense. It is a safer kind of investment to make because there is not a rival competing electricity provider in the market, it is only BEL.”

 

Paul Lopez

“One may argue that BEL has reported millions of dollars in losses in previous financial reports. Is this a smart decision?”

 

Vanessa Vellos

“The fact that they had struggled recently does not negate the fact that for many years they had very healthy profits and the kind of investment that we have made, like I mentioned before, when you have a company and I have an ordinary share I am not going to get paid if that country is struggling. We don’t anticipate that BEL will continue to struggle because the demand is growing and the country is going. We invested monies from our excess and BEL takes that money and look at what they can do  to improve their operations so they can continue their trend.”

 

SSB Proposes $10M Heritage Bank Investment

 

As the Social Security Board defends its planned multimillion‑dollar investment in BEL, the board is also moving ahead with another major proposal, a ten‑million‑dollar term deposit in Heritage Bank. The two‑year investment, set at a fixed annual interest rate of two-point-seven percent, is projected to earn the fund over half a million dollars. So how does this second investment strengthen SSB’s long‑term sustainability? That’s the question we put to Public Relations Manager Vanessa Vellos.

 

Vanessa Vellos, Public Relations Manager, Social Security Board

“This term deposit investment of ten million dollars is a liquid deposit. It is a short period of time, for two years, and we should earn at the end of two years overall, in addition to getting back our principal, which is ten million dollars, five hundred and fifty thousand dollars we will receive at the end of two years. Previous to this investment, SSB had invested already in terms of deposits with  Atlantic Bank and the National Bank and those investments performed quite well. So the thought was, let us diversify a little more and let us check out if there are other banks in the industry if we can invest with them and Heritage Bank offered that type of opportunity and that is why SSB decided let us do the analysis and let us see if makes sense to invest with the bank. They did the analysis and it went through round of analysis and decided yes this is a good investment. It is a help as it relates to expanding or increasing the fund. You might say it does not sound like a lot of money, but we have plans to further diversify our investment. This was an opportunity that came  in 2025 and we decided to go with this investment. So you can look at it on one hand, if you have some balancing scales, ten million stays in the fund, no investment or ten million plus five hundred plus five hundred and fifty thousand at the end of two years. that makes sense because we are making an effort towards fund sustainability.”

 

Heritage Bank Says SSB Funds Fuel Community Loans

 

And as the Social Security Board outlines why it believes the Heritage Bank investment strengthens the fund, we also heard directly from Heritage Bank’s Managing Director, Steven Duncan. He says SSB’s ten‑million‑dollar deposit will immediately help expand the bank’s lending program, support he believes will flow right back to the very contributors whose money makes these investments possible.

 

Steven Duncan, Managing Director, Heritage Bank

“Social Security Board has a ton of money and it is one of the few entities where you have to give them money by law. So, they generate all these monies, and they try to get them in the banking system, save deposit etc., and they spread it around. They don’t want to have it in any one bank where if that bank should stumble and have a problem, so they spread it. And we are part of that, and we welcome it because those are the monies that we are able to use to lend to the same people who contribute to the Social Security Board.”

 

Paul Lopez

“How secure is this investment in terms of guarantee of return from the bank?”

 

Steven Duncan

“Well, it is like any other depositor. When you put your deposit in the bank, you don’t lose your deposit unless the whole bank goes down. If a bank gives a bad loan, the payment for that comes out of the bank’s pocket, the bank’s profit, not out of your deposit. You will still get your deposit when you go for it. When you go withdraw from your saving that money is still there. That is how it works. It is one of the reasons interest rate deposits on banks are not very high, because of the greater confidence around it, as compared to when you invest in a stock market or buy shares.”

 

Duncan says that by spreading its deposits across multiple banks, SSB helps keep those funds secure while allowing Heritage Bank to lend that same money right back to the contributors who need it most.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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