Latest update March 12th, 2026 9:56 PM
Govt. mulls incentivising day, night and elderly care facilities
– to co-invest, remove taxes from income
(Kaieteur News) – The Government of Guyana (GoG) is proposing to incentivise day and night care centres for the children of working women as well as elderly care facilities, both of which they will be co-investing in with citizens.
The revelation was made by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo at his Thursday press conference held at party headquarters Freedom House on Robb Street. He also disclosed that taxes will be removed from whatever income is earned from the centres once the fees proposed are favourable to the government.
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo
Reminding that the government is aiming to have a lot more women trained and come into the work force. He said many of them face issues in terms of where to leave their children, hence these facilities will address this.
“It can’t be too expensive and it can’t be far from their homes. So ,if the government were to build 15 daycare facilities across, say, Berbice or in Region Four, you have to travel and the whole NDC, or like in my village, if I live… at Unity and the daycare facilities in Mahaica, every morning, you’d have to take the child four miles to go there and pick up the child,” the VP explained.
After much thought on how this initiative could be supported the government, it was highlighted even if they build 1000 of the said facilities, it would not be able to run them, therefore the model of incentivizing them was put forward. In turn this will be creating business opportunities for persons living in villages, cities and towns.
“We will do prospectuses, and we’re going to have people. If you live in a village and you want to convert your bottom house into a daycare facility, we will, of course, it would have to be regulated. You have to have standards and everything else, but we can help you, even co-invest in fixing the facility, using the state (resources), we will remove any tax on income you earn from that facility,” Jagdeo further explained. Having 1000 of the facilities is equivalent to 1000 persons becoming business owners, across the country. This will be provided for in the 2026 budget and it is in keeping with creating more opportunities for persons.
Elderly care will be following the same model as the childcare, “So we are going to build a huge facility, modern facility, to replace the Palms. We’ve identified a place we’re going to build it, so that the state will provide care like we’re doing at Hugo Chavez. We built (it) for people, homeless people, but we recognise that a lot of people may want to do elderly care in their provider service wherever they live, so they too will get the same benefits, co invest and tax benefits, and for those big places like there are some who want to do this as a big business, they have an institution, then they don’t have to pay any corporate tax,” he said.
The VP added that he believes that this will be a very lucrative venture, as it will allow for better quality elderly care.
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