Former President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Timothy Tucker, has once again stressed the importance of easier access to finance for Guyanese businesses to effectively benefit from local content.
Notably, in the past, Tucker has been quite vocal about the bureaucracy at commercial banks in providing easier access to financing, which puts local businesses at risk of being unable to compete in Guyana’s oil and gas sector.
During his speech at a recent summit, Tucker expressed that the country’s budding oil and gas industry is highly capital-intensive, which makes it challenging for many small, medium, and large-scale enterprises to enter the industry and compete with other businesses to secure contracts. He reasoned that the capital-intensive nature of the industry requires businesses to have a higher starting capital, which is often unattainable without proper financing.
Tucker also drew attention to the 45-day waiting period for payments in the industry, stressing that this can make or break businesses, particularly micro, small, and medium enterprises. He further affirmed that the country’s outdated laws as they relate to financing need to be reformed to compel banks to provide easier access to finance.
He claimed that the only entities not investing in Guyana and Guyanese are the banks. He said, “They’re taking their money and investing it out of Guyana. The government, the private sector, local content, everything is backing and betting on Guyana.”
Furthermore, Tucker emphasized the need for risk departments in local financial institutions, stating that while they have commercial loan officers to assess risk, there needs to be a designated personnel to analyze the risk versus opportunities for success with the business.
He also charged the local private sector to seek investments instead of waiting for the government to present them, especially now that there is a Local Content Act.