‘Oil boom, but empty pockets’ …leaders clash as citizens say wealth not reaching the ground

Mar 11, 2026 News

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By Renay Sambach

(Kaieteur News) – Differing perspectives emerged Tuesday evening during the BBC World Questions forum in Georgetown as panelists debated whether Guyanese are truly benefiting from the country’s rapid oil-driven economic growth.

The discussion, moderated by Jonny Dymond and held at the Pegasus Suites and Corporate Centre featured Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh, Opposition Member of Parliament Tabitha Sarabo-Halley, Private Sector Commission Secretary Clinton Urling, and activist and businesswoman Ayodele Dalgety-Dean.

The debate centred on whether ordinary citizens are seeing the benefits of Guyana’s economic expansion following major oil discoveries in the Stabroek Block, where production began in December 2019. Currently, four developments are producing more than 900,000 barrels of oil daily, with ExxonMobil Guyana Limited targeting eight producing projects by the end of the decade.

Dymond asked the panelists:

“We’re hearing of the oil wealth, but we’re not feeling it. The government frequently speaks of the budget and their allocations, but it’s only a few that are benefiting. The last five years, the cost of living is about the only thing that has changed.”

Sarabo-Halley opened the discussion, acknowledging that the economy has grown but argued that the rising cost of living continues to affect households.

“I agree wholeheartedly that the only thing that has changed is the cost of living, and I believe that is something that we need to deal with. We need to target it. The reality is that when you look at the last budget that was passed, 51% of it went to infrastructure development.”

She noted that although the economy appears strong on paper and major infrastructure projects are being rolled out, citizens often measure the economy by their daily expenses. She outlined that about a fifth of the 2026, $1.5 trillion budget went to issues dealing with cost of living measures, but noted that a closer look at the numbers reveals something else.

“When you look to pension, the increase in pension was so minuscule…but the result and the reality is that the people on the ground, the people across Guyana are not really feeling all of this wealth that is coming in,” she said.

She noted that while it is encouraging to point to the country’s growing economy, rising Gross Domestic Product and the wave of major infrastructure projects linked to oil revenues, many citizens still face the reality that the economic growth is not being felt in their pockets.

Urling, however, argued that the suggestion that little has changed in five years is not supported by economic data, pointing to the country’s rapid expansion.

“Look, the question is valid, but it’s not true. To say it’s the only thing that has changed in five years, I can just pick on one issue to say between 2020 to now, we’ve seen a significant increase in our GDP. When I say significant, we move from a 5 billion GDP economy to somewhere around 25 billion in such a short space of time,” he said.

He acknowledged that citizens often judge economic progress based on their everyday spending.

“But people, ordinary people, and this is what is frustrating with the growth that we see, ordinary people experience the economy. Not true GDP statistics,” he said.

He said the challenge for politicians and policymakers is to ensure mechanisms are put in place so that the funds and revenues being generated are equitably distributed or redistributed to the most vulnerable in society.

“So that there’s prosperity, and progress for the majority of Guyanese where we can bring down and reduce the two main challenges the country faces inequality and the second one is poverty,” he added.

Finance Minister Singh maintained that the economic transformation underway is real and measurable. “I think the statement that he made or the question that he asked provides a very good illustration of the difference between rhetoric and reality,” he said.

The minister added, “The reality is… the Guyanese economy has been growing at a pace that has never been seen before, certainly in Guyana and indeed around the world.”

He said that as a responsible government, having discovered the resource endowment, the aim is to achieve at least two main objectives.  He pointed to job creation and new opportunities emerging across sectors as evidence that the benefits are reaching citizens.

“Over the last five years alone, we’ve created 104,000 new jobs…,” the minister said.

He noted, “It is not accurate to say that the only thing that’s changed has been the cost of living. The growth in the Guyanese economy has resulted in the creation of an unprecedented wave of opportunity for Guyanese at all times.”

When pressed that the jobs created are low skills and low paid jobs minister Singh said this too is not consistent with the reality.

“We have 6,000 persons now working in the oil and gas sector who are not working on oil. Many of them are engineers, they’re working on the FPSOs, they’re working in highly skilled areas, technical areas, in jobs that simply did not exist before,” the finance minister noted.

Dalgety-Dean said that while Guyana is experiencing a major economic boom, the focus must also be on how that growth improves the lives of citizens.

“Now of course growth is extraordinary. We are really, really going through a boom and lots of people are seeing the boom,” Dalgety-Dean said.

However, she stressed that economic expansion must translate into stronger social systems and opportunities for citizens.

“So oil cannot build only structures, even though it should build structures, and we expect structures to be built. But it should also build the country’s ability to care for its people and to prepare young people for the future. The argument is made in some quarters that the balance has been gotten wrong here.

There’s too much spending on the physical, on the buildings, the roads, the bridges, the hospitals, and not enough on the human, on direct investments in people, and on the poorest,” she said.

Grassroots women

Meanwhile, an oil and gas forum held on Saturday last in observance of International Women’s Day was marked by widespread complaints over the high cost of living, with participants expressing little optimism that the situation would ease for families at the lower end of the economic scale.

The event themed ‘Guyana’s women and oil- impact and resistance’ was organised by Red Thread and A Fair Deal for Guyana- A Fair Deal for the Planet, two non-governmental organisations.

Grassroots women from across the country were brought together as award-winning lawyer, Melinda Janki and other activists joined for enriching discussions at the forum, hosted at the Regency Hotel, Georgetown.

Setting the stage, Joy Marcus of Red Thread told of how hope for a better life from the rich oil resources in the Stabroek Block has dwindled. Instead, she told dozens gathered at the event that the operator, ExxonMobil is enjoying hefty profits while Guyanese women struggle to find meals to feed their families.

“While Exxon is boasting about the millions of dollars they gain in profit, for ordinary people we gained a cost of living that has skyrocketed so high, making it extremely hard for us to survive,” Marcus said as she paused from her prepared presentation to share how women are forced to cook more stews than ever, as vegetables have become hard to afford.

Another presenter, Susan Collymore weighed into the impacts of cost of living on pensioners in particular. Collymore pointed out that food, utilities and transportation have become more expensive over the past few years, a situation that is particularly straining on pensioners who depend on a fixed monthly income of only $46,000 now- given the recent $5000 increase.

Additionally, Rushana Pilgrim, a young single mother of two said she continues to struggle in an oil rich nation. “The cost of living keeps rising and it’s getting harder for ordinary families like mine to afford basic necessities…with all the oil wealth in this country we are supposed to be living better and not worrying everyday about how to afford a proper meal,” she stated.

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• BBC World Questions, Jonny Dymond, Oil boom, Wealth

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