President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali announced on Monday that Guyana is prepared to roll out a national payment platform and expand access to digital wallets within the next six months.
The Guyanese leader made the declaration at the commissioning ceremony to mark the opening of a new branch of Demerara Bank Limited at Beterverwagting along the East Coast of Demerara.
He said the move forms part of a broader strategy to modernise Guyana’s financial sector and expand access to cashless transactions.
“In the next six months, I have advised the governor of the Central Bank that…a national payment platform must be fully operational and we must have access to the digital wallets at a national level and at a national scale,” he stated.
A digital wallet allows users to make payments using their mobile devices, reducing reliance on physical cash.
The president said the next phase will focus on building the supporting infrastructure to enable seamless transactions nationwide.
This includes equipping supermarkets, retail outlets and other businesses with technology that can process contactless payments, allowing customers to pay by simply tapping or swiping their phones.
“That is where we are going, and that is where the country is heading,” President Ali stated.
Demerara Bank is also expected to launch its own digital wallets for its customers in the next four to six weeks.
President Ali emphasised that making banking services more accessible to citizens remains central to Guyana’s development agenda, stating that Demerara Bank has taken a significant step in that direction with the opening of the new branch.
“Today’s opening represents a continued expansion of traditional banking services, but it also reminds us that the future lies in greater inclusion and digital transformation,“ the head of state noted.
He said that residents along the East Coast corridor will no longer need to travel to Georgetown to access basic banking services.
Instead, they can now open accounts, conduct transactions and access credit within their own community.
President Ali highlighted that over the past nine months, the bank processed 450,000 new accounts electronically, and during that same period, more than $50 billion in transactions were conducted electronically.
This, he said, is a “remarkable” accomplishment and is indicative of the bank’s responsiveness to customers’ needs.
“What we see here today is not only success for Demerara Bank, but success for our country,” he said, adding that expansion in the financial sector reflects deliberate government policies aimed at creating a favourable climate for economic growth.
Private sector credit has grown by over 120 per cent in the last five years, mainly due to an increase in mortgage lending.
Mortgage financing, he explained, rose from $90.6 billion in 2020 to $185.4 billion in 2025, closely linked to a surge in home ownership.
“This is about families building wealth,” he said. “It means more Guyanese are investing in their future, and development is taking place not only in statistics, but in towns, villages and households across the country.”
He added that the average age of home ownership in Guyana is now among the lowest in the Caribbean, reflecting broader access to financing.
Despite the rapid growth, President Ali noted that the banking system remains highly liquid. This means that there is still significant scope for increased lending and investment.
Dr Ashni Singh, the Senior Minister in the Office of the President for Finance, commended the bank’s impressive growth over nearly thirty years.
He noted that Demerara Bank has moved from having no deposit base at its inception to becoming the country’s third-largest deposit holder.
Speaking at the ceremony, chairman of the bank, Komal Samaroo, outlined the institution’s transformation over the past 14 years.
He said assets have grown from under $10 billion to approximately $242 billion, an increase of more than 7,000 per cent.
The bank has also invested in infrastructure beyond customer service, including the construction of a dedicated training facility to strengthen staff capacity and service delivery.
DPI
