Lack of access to...

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Based on work done by the GCCI, it was noted that more than 50 per cent of businesses need formal financing to meet basic working capital needs, and less than 50 per cent need financing for fixed investments and to pay off debts.

To this end, Tucker had stressed the need for collaborative efforts to ensure there are more allowances for businesses to augment their growth potential through innovative forms of financing, such as invoice factoring, contract borrowing, and financing through receivables. Non-traditional ways of financing, he had added, can be spurred to support the participation of these entities and boost competition. Investor inclusion by floating micro bonds in the public domain would ensure that every Guyanese can participate meaningfully in the country’s growth.

In recognition of the challenges that local businesses face, the Finance Minister, in his Budget 2023 speech back in January, had stated that the Guyana Government is committed to ensuring that movable collateral and financial receivables can be pledged as security for financing in the interest of promoting easier access. To this end, it was announced that the necessary legal amendments will be enacted this year to facilitate this process.

“Our Government considers an efficient, deep, and vibrant capital market to be an essential aspect of a modern financial system. Investors in the productive sector should be able to consider, as a viable option, the possibility of raising finance on the capital market. In order to advance this objective, we will be convening stakeholders, including the regulator, self-regulatory organisations and the Private Sector, to identify practical actions that can be taken to promote capital market development,” Dr Singh had stated.