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After six years of pumping oil, Guyana’s debt increased sixfold
(Kaieteur News) – Guyana is being strangled ever since oil was discovered and gold price began soaring. And the saddest part is that, no one is coming to our rescue.
Not the Government, not the opposition, not the institutions, or the citizens themselves trying to break free from this chokehold that is tightening around this nation’s wealth.
Ever since we began extracting oil in 2019 and gold price jumped up, Guyanese should have been breathing prosperity. Instead, the nation is struggling to breathe.
Businessman, Glenn Lall
Everywhere you turn in the world, people are saying the same thing:
Guyana is booming, Guyana is becoming filthy rich. Guyana is one of the fastest-growing economies on Earth.
Those are the headlines. Those are the international reports. Those are the conversations taking place in boardrooms, investment conferences, and financial institutions across the globe.
Well, somebody please explain this to me.
Before the first barrel of oil was pumped in 2019, Guyana was struggling to meet its yearly national debt payments of just US$1.7B
Back then the country had to borrow and tighten its belt to survive. Fast forward to 2026, after more than US$ 100 billion worth of oil has been extracted from our ocean, the country’s debt has soared pass US$10B.
We should all for a moment pause and think about that, our debt did not double, did not triple, nor quadruple, but rather it increased six times in six years.
The more oil we pumped; the more debts came on our backs.
Commonsense would tell you that after producing more than, US$100 billion worth of oil, that debt burden should have shrunk to nothing, instead it has grown six times larger.
How does that happen? …how does a country with a. US$1.7B debt in 2019, produced over US$100B in oil, sinks itself into debt six times that US$ 1.7B in six years.
How do we generate more wealth than at any other time in our history, yet borrow more than ever before?
Back in 2019, Guyana wasn’t known as an oil giant. Nobody called us an energy powerhouse. Nobody described us as one of the richest countries in the making. We were simply known for exporting rice, sugar, timber, bauxite, fish, and gold. Earning under one and half billion US.
that used to keep businesses, its people and the country floating above water. At that time, the exchange rate was $200 to US$1, with no complaints of shortages.
Today in 2026, we’re exporting tens of billions of US dollars’ worth of oil, along with billions more from gold, bauxite, manganese, diamond and timber. The US dollar is trading now between G$230 and G$240 for US$1, and it’s hard to get.
Talk to importers. Talk to manufacturers. Talk to retailers. Talk to companies trying to pay their overseas suppliers, they will tell you some of the saddest stories ever told to mankind, the hassle they go through to get US$ to meet their payments.
The more wealth we extract from the ground and beneath the sea, the scarcer the US dollar becomes, and the nation sinks deeper and deeper into debts to get by.
Are we are heading like Venezuela, Trinidad, Africa and Asian oil countries here?
A handful of us walked 13 days, none stop from Berbice to Essequibo in that blazing sun and pouring rain, just to stop this nation from ending up exactly where it is today, swimming in debts.
We didn’t march only for ourselves. We did it for every child, every family, every business, every Guyanese, and our country.
And while we were on those lonely roads, many of you watched from behind your doors and windows.
You knew why we were walking. You knew it was about Guyana’s future.
Yet party loyalty was stronger than the love for your country. Political colours became more important than your children’s future.
Today, many of you celebrating a cash grant, a cash grant that is coming to you from loans, yes borrowed money, that your kids will scream to repay. Come on Guyanese, you deserve better, and let’s take a stand towards that.
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4 thoughts on “After six years of pumping oil, Guyana’s debt increased sixfold”
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Sports
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Sir. Ronald Sanders
The GHK Lall Column
Weekend Cartoon
I like the article but you didn’t tell us where the oil money is going.
HeY
Thank god, I am not one receiving handouts, grants from the
oil money…which is miniscule in total amount so far.
The Big Boys know who may be benefitting more than small, poorer
Guyanese.
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