Connectivity without sovereignty: Why Guyana must fix its digital weaknesses before it’s too late

Dec 13, 2025 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Guyana is in the middle of an extraordinary digital awakening. In just a few short years we have gone from isolated hinterland communities with no connectivity at all to a country where children in deep-river villages are attending virtual classes and where telemedicine is saving lives that, only recently, were beyond the reach of timely care. This is progress that deserves credit. The government has demonstrated a clear political will to modernize, and the work being carried out through the ICT hubs, solar-powered connectivity sites, and digital training programmes shows a seriousness of purpose that should be acknowledged rather than minimized.

Yet even as we celebrate these achievements, there are two deep structural weaknesses that threaten to undermine all of this progress if we do not confront them honestly: the quiet entrenchment of Starlink as our de facto national backbone, and the longstanding paralysis within our banking and payments system—a paralysis that is rooted, in large part, in failure of leadership at the regulatory level, particularly at the central bank.

No country can claim digital readiness if it does not control its own financial rails. And Guyana, for all its economic success, still does not.

Every Guyanese knows the symptoms. Long lines outside banks that resemble the 1980s. Businesses unable to accept credit or debit cards because the acquiring infrastructure is practically non-existent. No national real-time transfer system. No digital wallet with nationwide acceptance. No interoperable QR system. No government-driven standards for fintech. No proper e-KYC rules. No low-cost mobile money for the unbanked. The private banks are not modernizing because there is no regulatory push, and the regulator is not pushing because it is still functioning with the mindset and tools of another era.

The problem, however, is deeper than inconvenience. It is systemic. The Bank of Guyana remains trapped in a supervisory approach that is completely misaligned with the needs of a modern, high-growth economy. For years, the central bank has insisted on a policy philosophy that amounts to absolute conservatism: avoiding innovation out of fear of risk, instead of managing risk in order to allow innovation. The result is a financial sector that is rigid, timid, and chronically unprepared for technological change. Even as our economy grows at historic rates, our financial system behaves as if Guyana is a fragile colony incapable of taking bold steps toward modernity.

The consequences are not theoretical. Nearly half of our population remains outside formal finance. Small businesses are operating in cash. Citizens are forced to travel miles just to access their own money. Cheques—a relic of the last century—still move through the system as if digital payments never existed. Banks have been allowed to operate with almost no incentive to innovate. The central bank’s silence, its lack of a national payments roadmap, and its refusal to demand modernization have collectively created a situation where even basic improvements—such as instant transfers between banks—remain out of reach.

This financial stagnation makes our dependence on Starlink even more dangerous. As the government rolled out connectivity to more than two hundred remote communities, it filled a gap that local ISPs had failed to address for decades. That decision was understandable and in many respects, necessary. But because the national payments system is so weak, the digital economy built on top of this satellite infrastructure is precarious.

If Starlink ever became disrupted—whether due to foreign policy decisions, commercial disputes, sanctions, or simple technical failure—entire regions of Guyana would not only lose communication but also lose access to every payment method tied to that connectivity. In a country where digital payments barely exist, there is no domestic redundancy in place.

Other nations have confronted these realities directly. India forced regulatory compliance before allowing Starlink to operate. Sri Lanka paused approval until data sovereignty was addressed. European nations require satellite operators to store or mirror sensitive traffic inside their jurisdiction.

Guyana has not yet established any such framework. The fault does not lie with the government’s digital transformation agenda—it lies with the absence of an empowered regulator capable of anticipating risk and guiding the country through complex technological transitions.

If Guyana is serious about its digital future, the next move must be decisive. The government should immediately establish a high-level study team tasked with developing a national digital sovereignty and payments modernization plan. This must include assessing satellite regulation, building domestic capacity, designing secure national data policies, modernizing the payments system, and requiring local banks to comply with international standards of efficiency and digital service delivery.

The Ministry of Finance is already vocal about the need for modernization, and the administration has made progressive moves in areas such as e-governance and digital literacy. What is missing is a central bank that acts with the urgency and intelligence that this digital age demands.

We stand at a crossroads. Guyana can continue allowing its digital and financial foundations to evolve in an uncoordinated, unregulated way, leaving citizens vulnerable to disruptions and outside control. Or we can seize this moment to build a resilient, modern, sovereign digital state—one where connectivity is supported by strong local infrastructure, and where our financial system finally reflects the economic power we now possess.

We have already proven that the impossible is achievable. What remains is to strengthen the institutions that must carry this vision forward. I am confident that if the government takes the lead, the country will rally behind it.

Yours faithfully,
Dr. Walter H. Persaud

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• digital weaknesses, Letters, sovereignty, Walter H. Persaud

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