With the foundation set for the Guyana Development Bank (GDB) to be operationalised, President Dr Irfaan Ali has touted a number of proposals that residents of Port Mourant in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) can capitalise on. Addressing residents during a public consultation on the ‘Model Village’ Initiative on Saturday, the Head of State recognised that Port Mourant is a predominantly agricultural community. To this end, he presented some business models that the persons there can tap into with financing from the GDB. However, President Ali pointed out that persons would have to come together and form consortiums in order to benefit from this small business support initiative.

“[We will] establish clusters that we want to work with on the Guyana Development Bank so that we can have hatchery here, we can have the tunnel house programme here [and] we can have the shade house programme here, but working in clusters,” he emphasised. The Guyanese Leader told the residents that a team comprising Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha and Government Efficiency and Implementation Minister Zulfikar Ally will return to Region Six in two weeks’ time to launch the GDB. They would collaborate with other officials including regional representatives to engage the Port Mourant community with the aim of forming these clusters. “Those persons [come here] to start working with you in clusters so that you can have the maximum gains out of the Development Bank,” Ali posited. Just last month, the National Assembly passed the GDB Act 2026, paving the way for existing and aspiring Guyanese small business owners to start access financing and other support services.

This, coupled with the President’s subsequent assenting into law, now allows for the operationalisation of the Development Bank, which will see loans of up to $3 million being provided to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across a wide spectrum of sectors, free of collateral and free of interest.