Chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) in Guyana, Gerald Gouveia Jr, is encouraging Guyanese businesses to prepare themselves so that they can tap into the billions of dollars of foreign capital that are available out there. He made these remarks at the Global Growth and Commerce Summit held on Thursday at World Trade Centre (WTC) in Georgetown. According to Gouveia Jr, Guyana needs more capital. Currently, private sector credit within the local banking sector has grown to an impressive 20.4 per cent year-on-year average, with less than two per cent non-performing loans. However, the PSC head explained that local investors have already exhausted all the financial options within the banking sector.

“Our banks are not able to provide enough money fast enough to continue the pace of growth. So, we’re engaging with foreign venture capital funds. We’re engaged with foreign financial institutions, and they’re all telling us the same thing: ‘We want to invest in Guyana; take our money’.” Gouveia Jr noted. Presently, there is some £3 billion in funding available under the United Kingdom Export Finance (UKEF), which is available for both the Guyanese Government and private sector to tap into.

Similarly, the United States Export-Import (EXIM) Bank has made up to US$2 million in financing available to Guyana, of which at least US$1.5 billion is still accessible for both public and private projects. Additionally, agencies like the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) are also offering a number of products through its private sector arm, IDB Invest, to local businesses. Only back in April, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of IDB Invest, James Scriven, was in Georgetown, where he had a series of engagements with both the Government and local private sector, from which he had indicated there are new opportunities north of US$300 million in Guyana. At the time, Senior Minister with Responsibility for Finance Ashni Singh had urged the local private sector to take advantage of these financial offerings – something which the PSC Chairman recently reiterated. But with these billions of dollars available for the taking, Gouveia Jr emphasised that Guyanese businesses need to put themselves in order to access these resources.