HGP Nightly News – New financing and mentorship opportunities are expected to become available to entrepreneurs in Region Five within two weeks, with young people and women being encouraged to develop commercial ventures in agriculture and other sectors.
President Irfaan Ali announced that ministers would return to the region to launch the Guyana Development Bank’s services during an address to Hopetown residents on Friday.
“In two weeks’ time, the ministers will come back to you to launch the Guyana Development Bank,” he said.
The bank is expected to support the government’s effort to turn local skills, resources and business ideas into viable enterprises capable of creating jobs and generating income.
Ali said the financing opportunities should be linked to the Model Village Initiative, allowing communities to pursue economic projects alongside planned improvements to infrastructure and public services.
He proposed organising aspiring entrepreneurs into clusters rather than financing only individual, small-scale businesses.
“If we can find and mentor 30 young persons and women and put them into a cluster, we can develop a modern swine industry. We can develop hydroponics,” Ali said.
Working collectively could allow participants to pool labour, expertise and capital while reaching production levels that would be difficult for individual operators to achieve.
The approach could also make it easier to coordinate training, purchase equipment and secure reliable markets. Its success, however, would depend on careful management and clear agreements among the participants.
Ali urged residents to begin identifying ventures suited to the resources and demand within Region Five.
“We want to lay the foundation,” he said.
Residents will be expected to present practical business ideas when the Development Bank team begins its engagement in the region.
The President said those proposals should consider not only initial financing but also production costs, technical knowledge, management and access to markets.
Details about loan amounts, interest rates, collateral, eligibility and repayment periods were not announced.
Those conditions will be central to determining whether the programme reaches young people and women who have commercially promising ideas but limited savings or assets.
Ali said the government’s objective is to match residents’ ambitions with investment and mentorship, helping communities build sustainable enterprises instead of remaining dependent on isolated, small-scale economic activity.
