Billions in foreign capital available but businesses must be investment-ready – PSC Head tells Guyanese

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 the 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 billion 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.

“So, we have all of this billions of dollars waiting, begging to come to Guyana, but… if you don’t have a business plan, you’re not ready to play. If you don’t have a financial feasibility study, you’re not ready to play. If you don’t have audited financials, you’re not ready to play. If you’re not pursuing some sort of international certification, ISO or one of those, you’re not ready to play. And you will never get access to this money,” he declared.

According to the PSC Head, there are multiple resources locally that businesses can utilise to get themselves ready for these opportunities. In fact, at nearly all the business chambers in the country, there are services available at no cost to assist local companies to get investment-ready.

“We will help you for free to do these things, and you don’t even need to be a member. So, don’t do yourself a disservice. Start preparing to become investable and you will get access to…capital that we need to grow to this country,” Gouveia Jr stated.

Similar sentiments were shared by Head of Diaspora Affairs Unit at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rosalinda Rasul, who also delivered remarks at Thursday’s summit. She called on foreign investors, including those in the diaspora, to take advantage of the opportunities available in Guyana, bringing their capital, resources and expertise.

However, Rasul, who usually engages diaspora members looking to invest in Guyana, explained that oftentimes persons are fed information that do not clearly reflect the situation on the ground in Guyana.

To this end, she encouraged potential investors to engage the right people in order to get accurate information and be prepared when they come to invest here.

“You need to have right authority in the room that would give you deeper information, accurate information about what you can do in Guyana, understand the opportunities for growth, and then that takes to right concept, the right people, the right investors or financiers. There are not many things that’s going on in Guyana. It’s not just your traditional sectors, basically; that’s growing. There are the non-traditional sectors – AI, blockchain… But you need people with the ideas, and you need people to develop those ideas. Guyana needs new investments. It needs new people with new skillsets that will run with these ideas… and you need people with the credibility to fund it,” Rasul posited.