Re-emphasising his previous calls for changes at the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) that will ensure more efficiency and effectiveness in terms of service and resolving issues faced by pensioners, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, on Monday explained that despite the progress made by the entity over the last five years, much more still needs to be done in terms of service-delivery and resolution of pension matters.
The Minister was delivering the feature address at NIS’s 56th anniversary at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.
“The modern Guyana that we are building as defined by President Ali and as articulated in his vision is not only a modern Guyana that is visible, from the infrastructure standpoint but it must also be simultaneously a modern Guyana in terms of quality of service that is provided to citizens and the quality of citizen interaction with service providers,” Dr. Singh posited.
Dr. Singh, while congratulating the important national institution on its 56th anniversary, and while acknowledging the efforts made by the agency over the years, noted, however, that Government will be taking a zero-tolerance approach in terms of any lapses in service and resolution of matters.
“You have a duty to provide a service to the people of Guyana, and it is not good enough to have people waiting, to have them running from one office to another, to have them turned away for some spurious reason. This Government led by President Irfaan Ali is very clear. We have a zero-tolerance position on citizens not being served well. You are expected to provide good quality service to citizens,” the finance minister emphasised.
The Minister then encouraged and charged the NIS to identify other ways in which they can improve the quality of service to clients, and he noted that available technology needs to be used in a better manner as he alluded to government’s plans for digital solutions.
The Minister emphasised that there should be no case of delays in NIS contributors being able to receive their contribution statements upon request to the NIS. At this point he urged all contributors to the scheme to ensure that at least yearly they ensure that they uplift their contribution statement from the Scheme to keep track of contributions and not wait until they reach the age of 60.
He noted that from 2020 to now, employed and self-employed contributors to the Scheme increased, reflecting the increase in jobs as well as the country’s growing economy.
“The number of active contributors to the NIS in August 2020 was 184,928. By August 2025, five years later, the NIS had 253,489 active employed contributors so just for emphasis, that is an increase of 68,561 persons meaning that over the course of that five-year period the number of active employee contributors grew by nearly 70,000, by more than 37 percent and that is no surprise as we know that more than 60,000 jobs were created,” the senior minister explained.
“So, what this number reflects is consistency with that which has been determined by other administrative data that we have, that more than 70,000 persons are working today than were working in August, 2020 reflecting the growth and expansion in our economy, expansion in private investment, the opening of new businesses and the creation of more jobs,” he highlighted further.
He added that active self-employed contributors increased as well from 6,210 to 13,288, a more than seven thousand and a 113 percent increase over the five-year period from August 2020 to August 2025 and he noted too that this is consistent with more persons engaging in self-employed activities.
“So, if you put this together, the 69,000 employed and 7,000 plus on the self-employed roll, the NIS has more than 75,000 more people contributing to the Scheme than they had in August 2020,” Dr. Singh pointed out further as he reminded the NIS that all of these persons will be expecting their contributions to be accurately recorded and to get their benefits on time when they are legally entitled to those benefits.
Government, for its second term in Office has outlined its vision for improved service delivery at Government agencies including the NIS through the creation of a unified platform for modernizing and digitizing sectors and services including the establishment of a MyGuyana citizen portal, a single, centralized, one-stop, digital platform, available via website, Android, and iPhone apps, bringing together key government services in one simple user-friendly, digital window. It will include applications for tracking Old Age Pension (OAP) and NIS pensions, as well as other statutory entitlements. The Government over the last five years as well has been increasing NIS pensions and plans to continue doing so. During his most recent press conference, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo alluded to this as he encouraged NIS pensioners with 500 contributions and over to apply for the One-Off payments through the recent initiative being implemented by government. The programme launched in June this year allows pensioners who have a minimum of: 500-549 contributions to receive a one-off payment of $260,000, 550-599 contributions to receive $390,000, 600-699 to receive $520,000, 700-749 to receive $650,000.
Government is encouraging pensioners to visit the NIS Website at https://oneoffnis.gov.gy to check their eligibility and complete and submit their application form to apply for the one-off payment. The Vice-President added during his press conference that as part of its promise to increase NIS pension, government will be making injections from the treasury into the NIS so that the entity can increase pension.
Over the last term, under the current administration the minimum rate for NIS pensions increased from $35,000 to $43,075 per month while the minimum rate for Survivor’s pension increased from $17,000 to $21, 537 per month.
In 2021, NIS introduced WhatsApp services, enabling pensioners to submit life certificates and process other transactions without incurring travel or notary cost while in 2023, electronic submission of employers returns was introduced in 2023. Meanwhile, in June this year, President Ali announced a $10 billion one-off payment programme through the NIS aimed to support 25,000 pensioners who have not met the required contributions to qualify for an NIS pension with almost 1,800 pensioners benefitting from the facility as at September 26, 2025.
Also speaking at the NIS 56th Anniversary event were Chairman of the NIS Board Ramesh Persaud and General Manager of NIS Ms. Holly Greaves.
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