The Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry Ltd (GBTI) last evening commissioned its $2.6 billion corporate office, signalling the latest effort by the establishment to transform the local banking sector.
The facility was commissioned by President Bharrat Jagdeo during a simple ceremony held on its lawns at Kingston before a sizeable gathering, which included ministers of government, members of the private sector and customers.
GBTI Board Chairman Robin Stoby described the new office as the culmination of a major part of the plan to transform the bank into the leading one in the country. According to him, the development of new facilities is a pillar in the entity’s customer service strategy. The new facility, he said, has the first drive through ATM in the country. He said too that next month the bank will be introducing a web-banking service.
Stoby also underscored the strength of GBTI as a banking institution, citing its approximately $59.9 billion in assets and capital reserves of about $6 billion, as of the end of last month. He also highlighted several of the initiatives that his bank had introduced.
An influenza-stricken President Bharrat Jagdeo, in a brief address, urged Guyanese to replicate the success story of the Beharry family by achieving a vision through hard work, patriotism and risk taking. He urged the private sector to be more open to risk taking. “For too long… the aspect of risk taking was removed from our culture because the state owned most of the economy. And if you don’t have risk taking, don’t have entrepreneurial drive then the country is doomed,” Jagdeo said. “We’re lucky in this country. We have a vibrant private sector; one sect of the private sector is vibrant.
And I’ve made it clear that the private sector that has drive; that has vision; that wants to change this country is the private sector that we can work with.”
The Head of State said that persons needed to stop looking at the past and look to the future. “Too often we are constrained by the past… we have to dream about the future.
Changing this country, opening up all the opportunities, realizing them, unleashing all the skills our people have, creating the supporting environment…,” Jagdeo said.
This, he said, is not the role of the government alone and identified the banking sector as having an important role in developing entrepreneurship in the country. Jagdeo said he is happy that the local banking sector is finding opportunities in Guyana to utilise the money it has been able to raise.
While expressing a desire to see similar facilities in the country, Jagdeo noted that there was a pervasive thinking that such structures were too large for the demand in the country. He said these were simply the thoughts of persons who have a limited vision. “We’ve heard many people, because they are limited again by vision, they don’t want to expand the asset base of this country. They think our people will not rise to the challenge and use their services,” Jagdeo said. “So we must not have new malls, because our population is too small.
We shouldn’t have a big restaurant like New Thriving because people will not go there to eat and we must not have new hotels in the country because people will not stay there. These are important things for our country to move forward. We have to dream bigger…,” Jagdeo stated.
Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh congratulated the bank on its investment and described the new building as the “quintessence of modernity”. He said that it raises the bar as it concerns corporate infrastructure in Guyana.
He said the facility is testimony of growth as well as confidence in the financial sector and the country’s economy. Singh said GBTI has been at the heart of the innovation of the country’s financial sector.
Singh said too that the success of GBTI and the Beharry conglomerate is testimony to what Guyanese businesses can achieve. He said it is possible to move from the most humble of beginnings into a large conglomerate producing “world-class products”. He said that while such success may not take place overnight, one needed to be bold if this was to be achieved.
Rabindranauth Beharry, who represented the majority shareholders in the bank, chronicled his family’s involvement in business in Guyana. He said the bank has benefited from “a friendly government” and opined that the country now has a very vibrant private sector. He said the new facility was built by a workforce of which 97 per cent were Guyanese.
GBTI’s new corporate office, which is located east of the Umana Yana, is expected to house all the administrative services of the bank. Construction started in 2007 and concluded earlier this year. Parking is available for 40 vehicles.
GBTI was formed in 1987 when the Government of Guyana acquired the assets of Barclays PLC. In January 1990, the bank merged with Republic Bank (Guyana) Ltd formerly Chase Manhattan Bank NA. During the following year the government converted the bank into a public company insuring a prospectus covering issue for sale of 14,000,000 shares (70% of its shareholding) at $10 each.
“In 1994 the government sold its 30% shareholding to Secure International Finance Co Ltd, making that company the majority shareholder of the bank with 61% of issued shares,” the bank’s website said. “On 15 December 1995, a rights issue of one share for every one share held was made, substantially increasing the capital base of the bank.”
