Non-performing loans fall to 1.3% as Private Sector credit grows by 104.7% – Dr Singh

Senior Minister within the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, has highlighted significant improvements in Guyana’s financial sector, noting a sharp decline in non-performing loans alongside substantial growth in credit to the Private Sector.

He made the disclosures while addressing a UK Export Finance (UKEF) Private Sector Financing Workshop on Wednesday. Further, he highlighted that credit by the domestic financial system to the Private Sector has more than doubled from 2020 to 2025, growing by 104.7 per cent.

This growth, he noted, has been evenly spread across all of the major productive sectors of the economy.

For instance, he pointed out that credit to the agriculture sector has grown by 137 per cent, credit to manufacturing expanded by 164 per cent, credit to services increased by 100.9 per cent, and credit to real estate mortgages grew by 104.6 per cent.

He added that credit to mining and quarrying grew by 58.6 per cent, but explained that this is only because many companies in this sector are international firms that seek financing overseas.

Nonetheless, Dr Singh emphasised that “what we see here is an extremely consistent story of demand by the Guyanese Private Sector for financing.”

Moreover, he highlighted that in an environment where credit to the Private Sector has grown, the non-performing loan to total loan ratio has fallen from 10.8 per cent to 1.3 per cent.

“Meaning essentially that the overwhelming majority of the credit given by the domestic financial system to the non-financial Private Sector in Guyana comprises very solid, eminently viable, eminently bankable projects,” he remarked.

Dr Singh posited that this tells the story of how much demand there is for competitive financing for good quality, bankable projects.

In this regard, he highlighted opportunities that exist for financing outside of Guyana through institutions like UKEF and IDB Invest, the Private Sector arm of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Dr Singh explained that prior to December 2020, the cumulative approvals by IDB Invest for projects in Guyana were not more than US$10 million.

In contrast, he noted that from December 2020, to date, IDB Invest has approved more than US$260 million for projects in Guyana.

The Finance Minister previously explained the story behind that number is the growth of Guyanese companies themselves. For example, Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL), the 1952-founded public company and producer of the internationally recognised El Dorado rum, secured a US$22 million financing package from IDB Invest and US$20 million from its own resources, together with a US$2 million blended-finance loan from the Clean Technology Fund to expand its juice and milk production.
The company was also able to construct a 3.25-megawatt self-consumption solar photovoltaic system with battery storage.

Down at the Port of Georgetown, Muneshwers Limited partnered with IDB Invest and the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry on a US$14 million financing package for two new multipurpose cargo cranes and a logistics warehouse.

In the retail space, Unicomer Guyana Inc, through its real estate arm Redstart Guyana, drew US$25 million in IDB Invest financing for the “River Place” commercial complex and megastore at Farm, East Bank Demerara.

And Guyana’s smallest businesses have also been brought into the frame. In January 2026, the Institute of Private Enterprise Development (IPED), the country’s leading non-bank financial institution, secured a US$5 million loan from IDB Invest to expand access to finance for micro and small enterprises, with a particular focus on women, youth, and rural entrepreneurs.

In April, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of IDB Invest, James Scriven, stated the institution is looking at several projects that could see potential investments of more than US$300 million being injected into the Guyanese economy.