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Govt. seeking to tap Qatar oil money for housing programme
President Irfaan Ali.
Kaieteur News – The government of Guyana is seeking to tap into Qatar’s oil money to expand its housing development projects. President Irfaan Ali recently announced that he engaged with the Emir of the oil-rich country, His Royal Highness, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani earlier this week, where he expressed Guyana’s interest in accessing resources from the Qatar Fund For Development (QFFD).
The QFFD is a public development institution under the government of Qatar that provides external aid for projects that address issues such as education, health and economic development while promoting sustainability. The fund sees a large amount of the nation’s oil money being plugged in to provide aid to countries all across the world.
An official release from the Office of the President stated that following discussions, it was decided that teams from both Guyana and Qatar will soon be mobilized to further discussions. According to a statement from the government, the teams will include Foreign Affairs Ministers from Guyana and Qatar, Qatar’s Energy Minister, Guyana’s Minister of Natural Resources and Minister of Agriculture.
The release mentioned that the teams will be in charge of designing programmes and projects for Guyana to access resources from the QFFD. Also discussed at the meeting was Qatar’s support for other key sectors which includes energy, oil and gas, services and infrastructure.
The Government of Guyana has been actively seeking funds for housing development since taking office in early August. Recently, the PPP administration has been focused on raising US$250 million to bolster housing development for the next five years. To raise the monies, the Housing Ministry has been publishing advertisements in the newspapers looking for persons interested in financing the initiative. In their advertisement it stated that in light Guyana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) set to rise with our growing oil and gas industry, the government intends to transform the infrastructural landscape of Guyana by boosting urban development.
The Ministry has been encouraging persons or entities who wish to provide financing to submit proposed term sheets to them. The terms sheets must include their interest rates and terms, an outline of their assumptions and expectations, a time period to conclude their financing and proof of their capability and experience.
They noted that the expressions of interest will be reviewed by the government and parties that are selected will be invited to negotiate and participate in a Housing Financing Development Plan.
Ali claimed that since putting out the advertisement the response has been “nothing but overwhelming”, stressing that he would have engaged with persons on a bilateral, multilateral and regional level as it relates to housing development in Guyana. “Every single Head of State I spoke to so far, I’ve outlined housing as a top priority and asked that financing of the housing programme be taken into consideration of their development fund,” President Ali said.
He further disclosed that a Diaspora Housing Fund is also under consideration to be established and will see the Guyanese Diaspora becoming involved by providing financial resources.
“There is great potential in creating a Diaspora Fund that can be utilized in a sector like the housing sector and this is also under consideration at the moment, creating a Diaspora Housing Fund. They get 0.5 per cent interest at prime and if they have an investment that gives you over 1.5 per cent return or two per cent return then you’re creating a new market and we’re creating new access to capital,” Ali explained.
The President’s announcements were all made at the opening ceremony of the “Dream Realized” housing event on Friday which saw over 1,000 Guyanese in attendance, some being first-time applicants for homeownership while others were there to receive their land titles.
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