Trade between Guyana and the United Kingdom reached a record high of over £2.2 billion in the first quarter of this year, says British High Commissioner to Guyana, Joseph Fisher.
He made the revelation on Wednesday during a UK Export Finance (UKEF) Private Sector Financing Workshop aimed at highlighting financing opportunities for the local private sector.
“Today, Guyana is by some distance the UK’s largest trading partner in the Commonwealth Caribbean, accounting for almost 44 per cent of the UK’s total trade with the region. Trade between the UK and Guyana is today at record levels. In the latest figures, it is at more than £2.2 billion for the year to the end of Quarter One 2026,” he disclosed.
This is significant since according to the UK Department for Business and Trade, total trade in goods and services (exports plus imports) between the UK and Guyana was £1.8 billion in the four quarters to the end of Q4 2025, an increase of 8.7 per cent or £146 million in current prices from the four quarters to the end of Q4 2024.
According to the British High Commissioner, potential exists for trade to further expand.
He pointed to opportunities through the UKEF which has raised its financing capacity for Guyana to £3 billion.
Fisher explained that over the past months, the High Commission has been engaging with the local private sector which expressed a strong interest in understanding more on how the UKEF works.
As such, he explained that the workshop was organised.
It is intended to provide Guyanese private sector stakeholders with a better understanding of how UKEF financing works, the scope and scale of potential future UKEF engagement in Guyana, and the processes and requirements for accessing UKEF support. The session also explored how UKEF can support trade, investment, infrastructure development, and broader commercial collaboration between Guyana and the UK.
The British High Commissioner pointed out that Terminal Two of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) is already being financed in part through UKEF but noted that “there is much, much more potential for UKEF engagement in Guyana”.
“And that potential sits across both the public and the private sector. Unlocking this potential requires an understanding from all parties not only of the opportunities but also of the processes,” he emphasised.
Caribbean Representative for UKEF, Judith Huijnen, informed the gathering of priority sectors such as renewable energy, transport infrastructure, healthcare, agriculture and airports.
“Our goal is to support both public and private sector buyers here in Guyana. We have no minimum transaction size,” she noted.
Also addressing the gathering was Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance Dr Ashni Singh who remarked that the “overwhelming majority” of the £3 billion financing capacity remains available.
“As we go through this period in Guyana’s economic history, when the economy is growing as rapidly as it is, driven of course by the favourable policy environment that we’ve established in government and driven also and particularly by the extremely strong, favourable response by the private sector investing in good, bankable projects, there could be no better time than now for UKEF to be able to identify good projects in Guyana and indeed for the private sector in Guyana to engage with institutions like UKEF…in their effort to mobilise financing for their respective projects,” Dr Singh noted.
In this regard, the finance minister encouraged the local private sector to look beyond Guyana when searching for opportunities to raise financing, noting that “UKEF has demonstrated their enthusiasm to do business in Guyana”.
UKEF aids overseas buyers across the world in accessing the financial support they need to procure from the UK, unlocking the potential of the UK supply chain by making their bids more competitive.
President Dr Irfaan Ali has already indicated that UKEF funding could be used to finance the second phase of the Linden to Lethem Road Expansion Project, from Mabura Hill to Lethem, as well as the deep-water port facility in Berbice and the modernisation of the country’s electricity transmission system.
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