The re­cent cel­e­bra­tion of Steel­pan Month in Au­gust should have brought a sense of ac­com­plish­ment. In­stead, the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny’s (NGC) an­nounce­ment re­gard­ing cuts in spon­sor­ship for three steel­bands and its de­ci­sion to end its part­ner­ship with Pan Trin­ba­go have cast a shad­ow over those achieve­ments.

The move was de­scribed by Pan Trin­ba­go pres­i­dent Bev­er­ly Ram­sey-Moore as “in­sen­si­tive” and “pass­ing strange.” She point­ed out that in­vest­ment in steel­pan is not on­ly about mu­sic; it sus­tains youth pro­grammes, women’s ini­tia­tives, and com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment.

This de­vel­op­ment is al­so a marked de­par­ture from the lega­cy of for­mer NGC pres­i­dent Mark Lo­quan, a cel­e­brat­ed mu­si­cian and com­pos­er of near­ly 40 steel­pan pieces, who died last April. Dur­ing his tenure at the state-owned en­er­gy com­pa­ny from 2016 to 2024, NGC made con­sid­er­able in­vest­ments in steel­bands and a va­ri­ety of arts or­gan­i­sa­tions and cul­tur­al groups.

This ma­jor blow to the steel­band move­ment al­so comes just a few years af­ter the loss of full spon­sor­ship once pro­vid­ed by Petrotrin left a gap­ing hole in south Trinidad, where bands had long de­pend­ed on cor­po­rate sup­port.

Now, an­oth­er state-owned com­pa­ny has turned its back on the art­form that T&T in­vent­ed and has giv­en to the world.

The sit­u­a­tion has de­te­ri­o­rat­ed to the point that gov­ern­ment has to prop up sev­er­al un­spon­sored steel­bands. Ear­li­er this year, the Min­istry of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts al­lo­cat­ed $2.42 mil­lion to 149 such bands ahead of the Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion.

Cor­po­rate sup­port for steel­bands has be­come the ex­cep­tion, not the rule. In many pa­n­yards, fundrais­ing bar­be­cues and raf­fles have re­placed spon­sor­ship cheques as the on­ly means by which steel­bands can sur­vive.

This is not on­ly em­bar­rass­ing but short­sight­ed.

In­vest­ing in the na­tion­al in­stru­ment is not just a cost; it’s an as­set. A thriv­ing steel­band sec­tor builds tourism by mak­ing T&T syn­ony­mous with a unique cul­tur­al ex­pe­ri­ence. It dri­ves in­no­va­tion in man­u­fac­tur­ing and tun­ing tech­nol­o­gy. It nur­tures dis­ci­pline, team­work, and cre­ativ­i­ty in thou­sands of young peo­ple — qual­i­ties busi­ness­es them­selves claim to val­ue. It strength­ens com­mu­ni­ty pride, re­duces so­cial risk, and cre­ates a pipeline of cul­tur­al am­bas­sadors who car­ry T&T’s name abroad.

Every dol­lar spent on the steel­pan move­ment mul­ti­plies in­to jobs, per­for­mances, ex­ports, and pos­i­tive brand­ing for the coun­try.

It is time for hon­esty. If com­pa­nies can spend mil­lions ad­ver­tis­ing their prod­ucts and ser­vices at Car­ni­val events, they can al­so un­der­write ap­pren­tice­ship pro­grammes for pan tuners and the oth­er de­vel­op­men­tal projects that are unique­ly suit­ed to the pa­n­yard.

This is not char­i­ty; it is en­light­ened self-in­ter­est. A thriv­ing steel­band move­ment boosts tourism, youth de­vel­op­ment, and na­tion­al brand­ing. Every­one ben­e­fits.

NGC and oth­er cor­po­rate en­ti­ties must make a choice: con­tin­ue to un­der­in­vest in the steel­pan un­til bands col­lapse, or take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty now by com­mit­ting to long-term, struc­tured sup­port for the in­stru­ment as a liv­ing na­tion­al as­set. The fu­ture of T&T’s na­tion­al in­stru­ment is in their hands.

The time for to­ken spon­sor­ship is over. Steel­bands de­serve sus­tained, vis­i­ble sup­port.

As the na­tion­al in­stru­ment of T&T, the steel­pan must be treat­ed to re­al, on­go­ing in­vest­ment. Com­pa­nies must com­mit to sig­nif­i­cant, sus­tained cor­po­rate sup­port, en­sur­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of pan­nists can keep the mu­sic alive, vi­brant, and evolv­ing.

Ac­cept­ing any­thing less be­trays the gift T&T gave the world. The call is clear: step up, in­vest, and se­cure the lega­cy of steel­pan.