The Centre’s continual interaction with Guyanese businesses and the Economic Baseline highlighted the need for financial products that can support a growing economy. The Centre worked with the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry, Scotia Bank, the Institute for Private Enterprise Development and Demerara Bank to understand the banking sector better.

The Centre consulted with the legal and accounting communities plus the Bank of Guyana to understand the regulatory environment.

Finally, the Centre worked with businesses to understand the largest capital constraints. With all this information the Centre worked with the banks to introduce purchase order finance and receivable backed finance products. These fit for purpose products were built to utilize the stability of the oil and gas sector to allow Guyanese firms to access working capital to finance orders. The purchase or receivable backed commitments from the Oil and Gas sector means that businesses can use capital to grow businesses versus being tied up in invoicing processes.

The products were set to launch in March 2020 but COIVD 19 slowed these down. The Centre will continue to work with our banking partners to roll out these products and monitor how these products work on the market.