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Access to finance critical for businesses to benefit from oil and gas sector – GCCI President
– President Ali commits to establishing team to help Entrepreneurs with business plans
By Davina Bagot
Kaieteur News – The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce (GCCI) on Friday expressed its dissatisfaction with the challenges local Entrepreneurs face in accessing finance to expand their businesses to cater to the needs of the oil and gas sector.
President of the GCCI, Timothy Tucker reminded that, “We must have access to finance to be able to play a significant role in the oil and gas sector and to realize our true potential of being the engine of growth.”
President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Timothy Tucker delivering remarks at the Business Development Forum
Tucker was at the time speaking at the 3rd Business Development Forum hosted by the Private Sector.
The GCCI President told the gathering which included President Irfaan Ali and Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh that both Government officials had called for an ease of access to finance but those calls remain unheeded.
In fact, Tucker said that the GCCI partnered with the Center for Local Business Development (CLDB) to conduct a survey in Guyana which found that in the next 12 months, over US$112 million will be needed by 450 companies to expand.
The GCCI has called for the hurdles to contract lending to be cleared and even received commitment from the Government in this regard-the restriction has not been reduced.
“…Yet we wait on the Bank and it looks like we might die waiting on the banks. So I just want to say, Banks need to get up off of their tush and get to work because we really need access to finance,” Tucker asserted.
Meanwhile, the Keynote Speaker of the event, President Ali sought to address the concerns raised by the Private Sector. He argued that local businesses have not been taking advantage of loans made available to them.
For instance, Ali told attendees that only recently a group from the United Kingdom Export Finance (UKEF) visited Guyana to invest hundreds of millions of dollars, but the businesses here did not take advantage.
The President said the investor group was looking to put 20 percent towards the advancement of local companies.
Similarly, he said, “We brought a Saudi business investor group, ready to form partnership – we were not ready with one single feasibility study or business plan to present. The Korea group came – the President of GCCI was part of this- we were not ready with one business plan or feasibility study to present.”
Expressing his dissatisfaction, the President said a US$100 million loan was announced for agriculture investment by Republic Bank, which only received a mere five proposals all received from him.
“Not one single private sector entity came up with a feasibility study or a proposal ready to present after the announcement of that,” Ali declared while adding “if I ask the private banks now how many of that 400 plus businesses that are ready for financing has a business plan and feasibility plan ready to be financed, I guarantee you it’s less than 15 percent or 10 percent…”
To this end, the President committed to establishing a team to aid businesses in crafting their commerce plans and feasibility studies to present to the local banks for approval.
President Ali disclosed that a number of local businesses have been able to expand over the last two years. Further, the President said that there has been a 22 percent increase in loans to small and medium businesses over the last two years.
Loans for the agriculture sector also grew by 38 percent to $18 billion over the past two years.
Notwithstanding, the President Ali assured, “We are gonna form a team that the Minister of Finance will meet with you and take you to the banks to present those proposals.”
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