Development bank offering zero-interest loans for SMEs to be established

A development bank will be established to help small and medium-sized businesses grow into viable and sustainable enterprises.

Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo made the announcement while addressing graduands of the Guyana Academy for Online Learning at the National Cultural Centre on Tuesday.

“There will be a bank, a development bank that will allow zero interest financing for small and medium-scale businesses, so if you’re getting there. So I hope that you would look at all of the opportunities,” he told the gathering.

The announcement by the Vice President could be seen as a response to long-standing calls by farmers and other stakeholders for the establishment of such a facility to support small and medium-sized businesses.

In March of this year, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) called for the development of proper financial markets, the strengthening of the stock market, and the creation of a development bank to support local enterprises.

According to the Chamber, at this crucial stage of the nation’s development—where there is strong emphasis on investment and economic diversification—the absence of mature financial markets, an underdeveloped stock exchange, and the lack of a development bank must be urgently addressed.

Dr. Jagdeo also took the opportunity to address a number of areas of focus, including financial literacy.

“In the financial sector, we’ve already made it clear that a big focus in the next term would be financial literacy, financial empowerment, underwriting opportunities in the oil and gas sector and other sectors that would have a guaranteed rate of return for small investors. That’s underwritten by the state, so we can democratise investments across the country,” he said.

Guyana, the Vice President noted, has come a long way—from recovering from poor economic policies from the 1970s right up to the early 1990s to becoming one of the fastest-growing economies in the world today.