KINGSTON, Jamaica — Founder of Life of Jamaica insurance company (now Sagicor) R Danny Williams was on Saturday November 2 conferred with the Honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) degree by the University of the West Indies (UWI) at the annual graduation ceremony held at the university’s Mona campus in St Andrew.

Williams, whose career in underwriting spans some 60 years, implored graduates not to harp on any perceived failures of his generation but rather to build on what exists in order to improve the quality life in Jamaica.

He said that while people will now see all that is wrong in Jamaica there has nonetheless been tremendous progress in the country compared to 60 years ago when he started his career.

“Yaws and ‘chigger’ no longer exists in the island, in fact most of you here never heard of them,” said Williams to laughter from the gathering.

Williams added that 60 years ago only five per cent of Jamaica had electricity “now the island has 95 per coverage.” The island never had a financial sector 60 years ago, said Williams, “There was no Bank of Jamaica”.

Williams, who did a stint as minister of industry in the Michael Manley People’s National Party administration, described many other developments in the island which he said were often overlooked and taken for granted.