by Randy GoPaul
Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh has apparently decided that Guyanese entrepreneurs need a lecture on business management. Speaking at the National Small Business Week Expo on Saturday, he reminded them that a loan alone will not make their businesses successful, that entrepreneurship must be taken seriously, and that government assistance cannot compensate for poor management.
Well, of course! Who ever said that borrowing money guaranteed business success? Certainly anyone who has operated a business knows that obtaining financing is often the easiest part of the journey. Finding customers, managing cash flow, controlling expenses, dealing with competition and remaining profitable are where the real difficulties begin. But what makes the minister’s remarks particularly troubling is their timing and the extraordinary promotion that preceded them.
For months, President Irfaan Ali and members of his Cabinet have enthusiastically promoted the Guyana Development Bank as a major opportunity for ordinary Guyanese to become entrepreneurs. We have heard about interest-free loans, no collateral, easier applications, financial independence and wealth creation. Citizens were encouraged to bring their business ideas, and the government promised to help them turn those ideas into successful enterprises. The message was repeated across public meetings, official announcements and social media.
And Guyanese responded!
On October 20, President Ali proudly reported that an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people had applied to the bank since its launch on October 5. He celebrated the convenience of an application system that allowed people to apply from home, work or even a cricket field. It was an impressive demonstration of public interest, and naturally the announcement generated another round of positive publicity.
But applications are not businesses. They are requests for assistance. They tell us how many people want an opportunity, not how many have been assessed, approved, financed or equipped to operate successfully. The President was celebrating the number of people entering a system whose capacity to process and support them remains to be demonstrated.
Now, barely three weeks after the launch, the Finance Minister is reminding these same aspiring entrepreneurs that their success depends on their own competence. His statement is technically correct, but it raises a question that cannot be dismissed: why is the emphasis suddenly shifting from the government’s promise of support to the entrepreneur’s responsibility for success?
I am particularly concerned because the government understood this challenge long before the first application was submitted. In his June 11 announcement, President Ali described an ambitious network of regional credit officers, technical specialists, business mentors and facilitators who would guide entrepreneurs from their initial ideas through business development and expansion. He specifically promised that support would continue after loans were issued.
In fact, the Minister’s own 2026 Budget speech promised that Development Bank loans would be accompanied by technical advisory and mentorship services. This was part of the programme’s design. So why are we now discussing the limitations of loans as though the need for additional business support has suddenly become apparent?
The government cannot spend months promoting the availability of financing and then behave as though the difficult part begins and ends with the borrower. It accepted a responsibility when it established a public development bank with the stated purpose of helping underserved entrepreneurs build sustainable businesses. That responsibility includes assessing whether a proposed enterprise has a realistic market, whether the applicant understands its financial obligations and whether meaningful technical assistance is available.
Consider the arithmetic. The bank was launched with an initial capital allocation of approximately G$20 billion, offering loans of up to G$3 million. If 20,000 applicants each requested the maximum, the total demand would reach G$60 billion. Of course, many applicants will request smaller amounts, and many may not qualify. The bank also offers smaller loans. But the example illustrates the size of the potential challenge. Government must have anticipated that demand could exceed the resources immediately available.
Then there is the manpower problem. On October 20, when the President announced the estimated application figures, the bank’s board was still considering candidates for chief executive officer. How many trained credit officers are available? How many business proposals can be properly evaluated each week? How many mentors have been engaged, and how many businesses can each realistically support? What proportion of the applications is complete, and how many represent businesses with an identifiable customer base?
These are operational questions, not political distractions. They are the questions any competent business manager would ask before launching a programme of this magnitude.
I am also concerned about the government’s apparent enthusiasm for increasing the number of businesses without publicly demonstrating that sufficient markets exist to sustain them. Guyana has a relatively small consumer market, and the existence of demand for a product does not necessarily mean customers can afford to purchase it.
Imagine a community with ten poultry farmers already competing to sell their chickens. What happens if thirty more residents receive subsidised financing to enter the same business? Each new farmer must purchase feed, raise birds, find customers and repay a loan. The existing farmers must continue selling their chickens too. Unless demand expands, the additional producers may simply divide the same customers among themselves, forcing prices down and weakening businesses that were previously viable.
The Development Bank proposes to organise borrowers into business clusters. There may be advantages in shared purchasing, training and distribution, but clustering similar businesses does not automatically create new customers. Who is assessing market capacity before loans are approved? Who is examining whether existing businesses will be displaced? A development programme that increases the number of struggling businesses has accomplished very little.
And please, let us stop casually referring to the survival businesses of ordinary Guyanese as hustles that need to become serious enterprises. Many Guyanese are already engaged in perfectly serious economic activity. The woman selling food to support her children, the small farmer struggling with input costs, the mechanic, the seamstress and the shopkeeper are managing real businesses under difficult circumstances. Some are operating at a scale dictated by the purchasing power of their customers. Their inability to expand is not necessarily evidence of poor management.
There is also something fundamentally unfair about creating enormous public expectations around an economic opportunity and then allowing the conversation to drift toward individual shortcomings before the programme has demonstrated its own effectiveness. Government cannot guarantee that every borrower will succeed. No responsible person should expect that. But it can establish appropriate lending standards, develop useful business support systems, identify viable sectors, support access to markets and monitor the performance of the enterprises it finances.
The Finance Minister should therefore be explaining how many applications have been processed, how many loans have been approved, how many have been disbursed and what support will accompany each loan. Applicants also deserve to know how long decisions will take and what happens if their proposals are rejected.
Over time, the government should publish how many funded businesses remain operational after one year, how many are profitable, how many have created employment and how many borrowers are meeting their repayment obligations. These are far more meaningful measures of success than the number of people who completed an online form.
Perhaps Dr Singh intended only to remind entrepreneurs that discipline and good management matter. Fair enough. But the same standard must apply to the people managing the Development Bank. The government should demonstrate the financial discipline, planning, market awareness and operational competence it is now demanding from borrowers.
The real challenge has finally arrived. Applications have poured in, expectations are high, and the government must now deliver a functioning development institution rather than another impressive announcement.
Dr Singh, a loan alone will not make a business successful. We agree. That is precisely why the government promised mentorship, technical assistance and ongoing support in the first place.
The question now is whether it has built the capacity to deliver those promises.
You cannot celebrate 20,000 applications as evidence of a successful policy and then suggest that the responsibility for success rests primarily with the applicants. If the government wants credit for creating the opportunity, it must also accept accountability for the quality of the programme.
The government encouraged Guyanese to apply. They listened. Now the government must demonstrate that it is as prepared to support those businesses as it was to promote the loans.
