Charlestown, Nevis, September 1, 2025 (NCCU Communications) — He has officially retired after 30 years of service as the General Manager of the Nevis Co-operative Credit Union (NCCU) Limited, but Mr Sydney Newton’s legacy at the Charlestown-based financial institution will continue to flourish even after he would have left the scene.
“Mr Newton, as another token of our appreciation, it is with great delight that I announce that our Scholarship Programme will now be named in your honour,” revealed NCCU President Mr Kris Liburd at the 52nd Annual General Meeting held on Thursday August 28.
The announcement took everyone at the Nevis Performing Arts Centre (NEPAC), St. Thomas’ Parish, where the 52nd Annual General Meeting was held, including the retiring general manager, himself an icon of the credit union movement in the region, by surprise as it was not part of the AGM’s agenda.
“So later this year during International Credit Union Week (in October) we will see the recipients of the George Sydney Newton Scholarship Award,” said Mr Liburd. “We thought that this was a very fitting gesture to celebrate your legacy, to celebrate your work, and as a way of showing our appreciation to you for all that you have done for our Credit Union and for the co-operative sector.”
The now renamed NCCU’s George Sydney Newton Scholarship Award, which began in 1986, provides support for students attending the Charlestown Secondary School (CSS), Gingerland Secondary School (GSS), Nevis Sixth Form College (NSFC), and the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College (CFBC).
As of 2024, the scholarship programme has provided financial support to seventy-nine students since its inception – 50 females and 29 males. There were twenty-one (21) students in the scholarship programme as of December 31, 2024, who received annual bursaries ranging between $700.00 and $800.00 per student during the first term of each school year, to assist with the purchase of textbooks and uniforms.
In addition, the NCCU continued to pay full cost of CXC, CSEC and CAPE examinations for all scholarship awardees in Form 4 and 5, Nevis Sixth Form College, and the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College.
“I am pleasantly surprised – I did not expect all that I heard this evening, but I am truly grateful,” remarked an elated Mr Newton. “What can I say? It was Mr Warner Riviere and Ms Ann Marie Caines (pioneers of the credit union movement in Nevis) who got me into the credit union’s active movement back in 1983, and I am truly grateful to them for seeing in me, a 21-year old, some potential which has bloomed and blossomed into what has happened this day and age.”
In reminiscing the history of the Nevis Co-operative Credit Union Limited, President Liburd recalled the days when he worked at the Credit Union under Mr Newton, but tables turned and he became Mr Newton’s boss after he was elected the President.
“But throughout our working relations I always found you to be a very hard worker, someone who genuinely cares about people, and someone who was genuinely interested in seeing the growth and upward development of the co-operative sector, and your contribution has not gone unnoticed,” underscored President Liburd.
While earlier delivering his remarks at the opening of the meeting, President Kris Liburd, in acknowledging the retiring general manager, said: “Through sound leadership, a commitment to excellence and a heart for humanity, Mr Newton helped to propel the NCCU on a path of sustainable growth in the face of natural disasters, economic recession and a global pandemic.
“With an enviable credit union career spanning thirty (30) years, (the second longest tenure of a credit union general manager in the OECS sub-region), Mr Newton’s contribution to the credit union movement is seen and felt locally, nationally, regionally and globally.”
Also honouring Mr Newton was Mr Melvin Edwards (CSM), former President, Caribbean Confederation of Credit Unions (CCCU); Chair Emeritus, World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU); Programme Director, Caribbean Development Education Program (CaribeDE); and CCCU Hall of Famer.
On presenting a gift to Mr Newton in the presence of NCCU President, Mr Kris Liburd, Mr Edwards said: “The gift on behalf of the Irish League of Credit Unions is both in honour of Sydney’s 30 years of dedicated service to the NCCU and the Caribbean Credit Union System.”
Expressing gratitude to his family for the support it has accorded him, Mr Newton called his wife Catherine and ‘the live wire in our home’ granddaughter Miss J’Niyah Newton to the podium, and announced that while it was the last AGM he was attending as general manager, it was the first his granddaughter was attending.
“And so as I say special thanks to the various boards, the presidents – if I was to count how many presidents I have worked with, they are definitely more than my ten fingers – and various board members and committee members,” said Mr Newton. “It has been a really interesting journey, challenging sometimes, and enjoyable all of the times, and persons like Mr (Melvin) Edwards, and my friends across the Caribbean, some of who might still be on the meeting virtually, I want to say thanks to every one of you for the support over the years.”
The meeting was however spectacularly left in suspense when President Kris Liburd announced: “I am also happy to announce that the Board has identified a suitable replacement for Mr Newton, but that announcement will be made in the not too distant future. So we will not make that announcement tonight, but once the time is ripe, you will know who the replacement is.”
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