The British media is reporting that cost of the British contribution to this new prison is £25m and not the £27 that was reported earlier. I will therefore be using this number to run a basic financial analysis of the true cost of this gift to the people of Jamaica, as agreed by our Prime Minister.
We have been told the UK government will cover 40% of the total cost of the prison, which would make the cost of the prison £62.5m and the GOJ will cover £37.5m of the total cost.
We have been told that the UK Government will save approx £10m per year when these prisoners have been repatriated to Jamaica starting in 2020.
A report from the correctional services done in 2008 put the cost taking care of each prisoner in the Jamaican penal system at $698,644.87 or US$9580.98 at the US $ exchange rate at the time of $72.92 to one US$. Without adjusting for inflation and using a projected exchange rate of $130 in 2020, the cost to the Jamaican taxpayer can be estimated to be $1.2455m per year per prisoner.
So the total cost per annum for the 737 prisoners would be in the order of $918m per year. This figure does not include cost for correctional services officers , other staff, maintenance ,other operational and administrative cost.
British Number
Capital Investment £25m
UK borrowing rate ~ 0.5%
Assume 30 yrs ( Loan term)
Savings per annum £10m
Financial Analysis
- Simple payback period = 2.5 yrs ( Not bad at all )
- IRR = 40%, Wow, astounding numbers
- NPV = £252.94M ( Positive to very good)
- BCR (Benefit to cost ratio) = 25.294 ( + and above 1 so very good)
Jamaica”s Numbers
Capital Investment £37.5m , Deferred Cost £25m
Jamaica borrowing rate = 7.5%
Assume 30 yr ( loan duration)
Savings per annum (Additional cost) [ cost to house prisoners] = – J$918m/200 = -£4.59m (Assume rate of $200 : 1£)
Savings on interest payments ~ £1.875m £ per annum [ Based on £25m]
Total savings/cost = -£2.715m per annum
Let’s assume the Jamaica Government was going to underwrite the cost of this prison , because we really need it and let’s further assume that the UK £25M would no longer be required to be borrowed by the government ie its a gift.
The analysis will be therefore based on this figure.
Financial Analysis
- Simple payback = ???
- IRR = ??
- NPV = -£57.07m
- BCR = -2.28
This deal by the GOJ using the assumptions above is a bad one and gets even worse, if one was to include additional cost for operations of the facility.
Its is my humble view that the GOJ has erred seriously on this one from a financial standpoint, while the UK government has walked away, the big winner.
The white guys keeps on winning, while the black people keep losing even more to the very people who robbed and raped us for over 400 years.
So we won’t give you reparations, instead we will given you a token gift to build a prison for your people, who we no longer intended to support with UK taxpayers money.
Who is looking after the interest of Jamaicans ?
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