$900 million revolving fund to finance timber and forestry investments

This Thursday, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Government of Guyana and Demerara Bank Ltd. for the implementation of a $900 million revolving fund to finance timber and forestry investments among the production of value-added commodities. General Manager, Dowlat Parbhu and Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh took the MoU into effect, with Natural Resources Minister, Vickram Bharrat, the Forestry Commission, the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) present. According to Mr. Parbhu, ““Our mission and vision are to empower people and this credit will be given to those who could not negotiate a commercial line of credit.” In ensuring access-to-finance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within logging and sawmill operations, this fund seeks to offer credit guarantee. This has been made possible with a $600 million contribution to the fund by Demerara Bank, with the remaining $300 million covered by the Government of Guyana and an interest rate available at 4%. Like this initiative, Demerara Bank began a Farmers Credit Line earlier in 2022 in alignment with the organisation’s and administration's unified goal to achieve sustainability and governance of the forestry sector. At the beginning of the final quarter 2022, the revolving fund went to fruition as a result of a stakeholder engagement with the Guyana Forestry Commission, through which it was recognised that the lack of capacity and involvement of a bankrupt commission led to inadequate support of the sector - a large contributor to the Guyanese non-oil economy.

Source(Newsroom, Image: General Manager Dowlat Parbhu and Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh upon the signing of the MoU, Newsroom 2022)

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29 Dec 2022 20:45 | by anaraine