The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) yesterday lobbied banks to take a proactive approach towards addressing the financial woes faced by the private sector and called for finances to be readily available for com-mercial entities to navigate challenges.
The GCCI said in a statement that access to finance is one of the most critical issues facing the business community and it believes that the banks play a major role in mitigating the existing challenge.
“The banks’ failure to respond to the concerns of the private sector leads to the assumption that the issue of access to finance may be a question of internal diffidence at their level as opposed to a national legislation or policy concern,” the statement said.
President of the GCCI Timothy Tucker, in an invited comment, explained that despite clear commitment from the hierarchy of the government to amend financial laws to overcome the hurdles faced, there has been no move by the Bankers Association of Guyana to identify areas to be addressed.
In the statement, GGCI pointed out that the private sector needs to have access to multiple instruments of borrowing such as invoice factoring, accounts receivable financing, contract borrowing and movable property lending to increase its competitiveness in the oil and gas sector.
“The local private sector risks becoming unable to compete with regional and international counterparts if this issue persists,” the statement underscored.
Tucker went on to say that it was troubling that the banks still have not taken the lead to have these barriers identified.
According to Tucker, the private sector is regarded as a partner in growth of development but if its members cannot have immediate access to finance, they are somewhat stifled from making investments.
Currently, he stated, businesses are unable to get loans on moveable assets due to the laws.
“We have time and again raised this issue in the room with the Bankers Association, the Governor and the Minister of Finance but there has been no move. The Minister of Finance Ashini Singh and President Irfaan Ali gave commitments to change whatever laws are necessary,” he said. He lamented that the banks have not been forthcoming with the sections that need to be amended.
“The GCCI is calling on the local banks to take a more proactive approach in sharing possible hindrances; whether legislative, economic, social, or environmental, restricting better access to finance for the local private sector,” the statement added.
