By LCN Business Desk
A woman who manufactures furniture in Guyana for a foreign niche market, not named in the report of the event, stood up at a Georgetown banking forum on 26 November 2024 and asked why small businesses had such difficulty opening US dollar accounts. The Governor of the Bank of Guyana, Dr Gobind Ganga, asked her why she wanted one, given that she was operating in an economy whose activities are in Guyana dollars. She explained that she would like to be paid in US dollars by her foreign customers.
Foreigners are permitted to open those accounts at Guyanese banks.
What did the Governor say about US dollar accounts?
That routine access would put the country's reserves at risk, and that Guyana is not Jamaica.
The forum was titled "Banking Made Easier", organised by World Trade Center Guyana and Demerara Bank Limited. Dr Ganga's own presentation was on banking regulations and the anti-money laundering landscape. Told that Jamaica's central bank had the previous day welcomed people there opening foreign exchange accounts freely, he set out why Guyana would not follow, as Demerara Waves reported.
"We have to be very careful; we are not Jamaica. We are Guyana; we are surrounded by land. We have neighbours easy to reach, easy to transact certain types of business and we're talking about money laundering here obviously," he said. He added that millions of US dollars were being "moved out" of Guyana, and cited one instance involving a major company.
::: She was asked to justify a facility a foreign company may simply open. :::
He also told the forum that the Guyana dollar, not the US dollar, remains the reference currency even as the country's international trade grows, and cautioned that transacting in foreign currency would cause credit, growth and inflation problems. The report of the exchange does not record an answer to her after she explained her export business.
Has the position changed since?
Not on the public record this newspaper can find. The queue has grown.
Two years after that forum, businesses were still reporting delays of weeks to obtain US dollars, and banks reported just over US$200 million in unmet requests, which this newspaper set out in an account of two years of complaints. Total foreign currency availability reached US$3.115 billion in the first half of 2026, up 27.7 per cent on a year earlier. The unmet requests sit on top of that.
The United States Department of Commerce, in its country commercial guide, describes "an ongoing chronic local shortage of U.S. dollars" and reports that American companies have had "difficulty and delays in accessing the U.S. dollars necessary to make payments for goods and services".
How quickly has the Bank modernised payments?
The person-to-person system announced for 2 June 2026 has no confirmed first day of transactions.
President Irfaan Ali announced Fast Pay at the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry's 190th anniversary on 17 May 2026 and gave 2 June as the go-live date, for a system that would let customers at every participating bank send and receive funds instantly, by mobile phone or internet banking, at any hour. The date passed without confirmation. On 3 June the Minister of Public Service, Government Efficiency and Implementation still described "the upcoming FastPay platform". On 3 August the Guyana Chronicle recorded a year-end 2026 target for the national payment system. On the public record this newspaper can find, no Bank of Guyana notice sets out Fast Pay's fees, its transaction limits or the banks taking part, and none confirms a first day of transactions.
Parliament passed the National Payment Systems Act No. 13 of 2018, which makes the Bank of Guyana the authority for authorising payment instruments and operating payment systems, and its supervisor for anti-money-laundering purposes. Guyana's own mutual evaluation by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force cites sections 7, 8, 10 and 11 of that Act.
In its report for the first quarter of 2026 the Bank wrote that "the recently implemented Guyana Real Time Gross Settlement (G-RTGS) and Guyana Central Securities Depository (G-CSD) systems are fully integrated with the existing Automated Clearing House (ACH) system." Eight years separate the statute from that sentence.
Where is Guyana in the regional payment system?
Outside it. Eleven Caribbean jurisdictions are in the pilot group and Guyana is not one of them.
On 26 October 2023 the governors of eleven Caribbean central banks unanimously adopted the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System for settling intra-regional trade, as PAPSS announced from Cairo. A pilot was agreed and an official commercial launch in the Caribbean was expected in the fourth quarter of 2024.
| CARICOM Payment and Settlement System | Guyana's position |
|---|---|
| Proof of concept, Central Bank of The Bahamas, 19 to 21 February 2025 | The Bahamas, Barbados, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago tested it. The Bank of Guyana is not named |
| Pilot group named in Curaçao, November 2025 | The Bahamas, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and the eight members of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union. Guyana is not among them |
| Governors meet PAPSS in Port of Spain, 18 September 2026 | The host central bank's release names no representative of the Bank of Guyana |
Afreximbank statement on the CAPSS proof of concept, as reported; the pilot group as named by governors meeting in Curaçao in November 2025; and the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago's account of the September meeting. Live tests between The Bahamas and Barbados succeeded in February 2025.
Under the 2018 Act, the authority that decides which payment systems operate in Guyana, and the supervisor of the institutions that would connect to a regional one, is the Bank of Guyana. Suriname, Guyana's neighbour across the Corentyne, was in the proof of concept. Nineteen months later, at the meeting in Port of Spain, the four governors in the room were those of Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, The Bahamas and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, and consultations toward a pilot were said to be continuing.
Three months after the Bahamas test, Afreximbank was in Georgetown for a two-day roadshow on a US$1 billion oil-services facility, presenting PAPSS to Guyanese businesses alongside Kathy Smith, the Georgetown Chamber's president, and Nafeeza Gaffoor, chairperson of the Guyana Association of Bankers. By September 2026 Afreximbank reported around ten further countries joining the PAPSS ecosystem during that year alone. Guyana is meanwhile building its own rail with India. How a national platform built on the Indian model would connect to a regional system built on the African one has not been addressed by any party to either.
::: These are longstanding matters, and they raise a question that belongs in public rather than in back-room whispers: whether the current leadership team at the Bank of Guyana is right for this country at this juncture of its transformation. The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry put that question in writing in March 2023. The same Governor is in office today. :::
How has the Bank answered the Chamber?
Once in writing, within hours, and it told the Chamber to go elsewhere.
In a press release in March 2023 about the foreign currency shortage, reported by News Room Guyana, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry said an independent intervention was needed because it had "lost confidence in the leadership of the Bank of Guyana, or its capacity to implement policies that will guide Guyana's financial sector to support growth".
The Bank replied by letter the same day, reminding the Chamber that it is "an independent central bank whose mandate is clearly defined by law".
::: "The GCCI appears to be of the mistaken impression that the BoG exists to ensure that foreign currency is available," the Bank told the Chamber. "The GCCI's energies would be better spent engaging either the banks or the bankers association." :::
That second quotation is from the Bank's statement as reported by Caribbean National Weekly on 4 March 2023. The Chamber it was addressing was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1890, 75 years before the Bank of Guyana existed.
He held the office through all of it, and still does. The Bank's own profile of him records that he was appointed Governor on 2 December 2014, after nine years as Deputy Governor and, before that, eight as Director of its Research Department. The Department of Public Information listed him as Governor in Guyana's delegation to the 62nd plenary of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force in September 2026, and he chairs the board of the Deposit Insurance Corporation.
What does this mean for an exporter?
That the currency you invoice in and the currency you can hold are set by someone who has to be persuaded you need it.
A Guyanese business selling into a foreign market faces three separate questions, and only the first is commercial. Whether a customer will pay in US dollars is between the business and its customer. Whether it can hold those dollars in a Guyanese bank account depends on the Bank of Guyana's position on foreign currency accounts. Whether it can obtain US dollars to pay a foreign supplier depends on the queue.
The second is the one she raised, and the one the Governor answered with a question of his own.
Over the same period mortgages took 36.5 per cent of Guyana's new credit and construction and engineering 1.8, and section 32 of its own Act exempts the Guyana Development Bank from the Financial Institutions Act.
The entities
- Dr Gobind Ganga is Governor of the Bank of Guyana and chairs the board of the Deposit Insurance Corporation ex officio. - Bank of Guyana is the central bank, which administers the licensing and prudential supervision of commercial banks. - Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry is the business body incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1890, which said in March 2023 that it had lost confidence in the Bank's leadership. - World Trade Center Guyana and Demerara Bank Limited organised the November 2024 forum. - Deposit Insurance Corporation administers Guyana's deposit insurance scheme and is chaired by the Governor of the Bank of Guyana.
What the title card says
- Kicker: Banking. - Headline: a furniture exporter asked why small businesses cannot open US dollar accounts, and Guyana's central bank Governor asked why she wanted one. - Deck: foreigners may open foreign exchange accounts at Guyanese banks, and the exchange took place at a Georgetown forum. - Standfirst: the Governor said Guyana is not Jamaica, and that the country is surrounded by land. - Panel, "Who may hold a US dollar account", sub-headed as the position described at the forum, three rows of party against answer: - A foreign person or company, permitted. - A Guyanese exporter, asked to explain the need. - Routine access for anyone, virtually ruled out as a risk to reserves. - Panel note: as reported of the "Banking Made Easier" forum. - Chip: 26 November 2024, the date of the forum. - Chip: US$200 million, the unmet currency requests banks reported two years later. - Chip: March 2023, when the Chamber said it had lost confidence in the Bank's leadership. - Chip: 2 June 2026, the Fast Pay go-live date the President announced. - Date line: 7 November 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly did the Governor say to her?
Responding to a question about why small businesses had difficulty opening US dollar accounts, he questioned why she wanted one although she was functioning in an economy whose activities are in Guyana dollars. She explained that her entity manufactures furniture for a foreign niche market from which she would like to receive US dollar payments.
Can anyone open a foreign currency account in Guyana?
Foreigners are permitted to, in order to facilitate foreign deposits from exports and transfers. The Governor virtually ruled out routine opening by anyone, saying it could put the country's foreign reserves at risk.
Why did he say Guyana could not follow Jamaica?
He cited Guyana's land borders with neighbours that also demand foreign exchange, and the ease of moving money across them. "We are Guyana; we are surrounded by land," he said, adding that the discussion was about money laundering.
Has the Chamber criticised the Bank before?
Yes. In March 2023 it said an independent intervention was needed because it had lost confidence in the leadership of the Bank of Guyana. The Bank replied the same day that it is an independent central bank whose mandate is clearly defined by law.
Is there still a shortage of US dollars?
Banks reported just over US$200 million in unmet requests in September 2026, against total foreign currency availability of US$3.115 billion in the first half of that year.