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…expresses dissatisfaction with services being provided

President Dr Irfaan Ali has called on telecommunication providers in Guyana to invest more in improving services being offered to hinterland communities across the country.

The Head of State made this remark on Tuesday evening during the Amerindian Heritage Cultural Extravaganza, which was held to usher in Indigenous Heritage Month 2026.

Expressing his dissatisfaction with the existing services being provided, President Ali lamented that “it cannot be that right on the Linden-Soesdyke Highway… that they can’t put in the towers.”

To this end, the Guyanese leader encouraged local providers, including Digicel, One Communications and ENet, to make the necessary investments to better serve indigenous communities.

According to Ali, Prime Minister (PM) Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips, who has responsibility for the country’s Information Communication and Technology (ICT) sector, has already engaged the service providers on this.

“We are dissatisfied with Digicel and the GTT and all the other service providers. ENet and everyone. They have to make more investments in the hinterland… They have to bridge the communication divide. And I call upon them to make the investments… They must make the investments,” the President declared.

In fact, he pointed out that the Government is already doing its part to bridge that digital divide by investing some US$19.6 million in the ICT sector, directly benefitting more than 140,000 citizens in the hinterland.

These investments have seen 179 low-Earth-orbit satellite terminals providing high-speed internet connectivity in various hinterland communities, while another 253 villages are currently benefitting from high-speed connectivity extended to 253 villages.

Additionally, over 230 ICT hub managers have been trained, and more communities have benefited from this training to serve the almost 200 ICT hubs completed across the country. He added too that some 2850 hinterland residents have been certified in basic digital literacy, with women accounting for approximately 75 per cent of those trained.

This call for improved private investments in the ICT sector comes on the heels of the Head of State pushing for lowered domestic airfares to ease the burden of travel to hinterland regions as well as cushion the high cost of living for residents in those areas.

Despite making billions in investment to improve hinterland airstrips and other infrastructure, the Head of State had expressed his disappointment just last month over the continued high domestic airfares that are not only affecting travels but also impacting food prices in riverine and hinterland communities.

ICT investments

Nevertheless, during Tuesday evening’s heritage event, President Ali went on to point out that just like in the ICT sector, his Government has also heavily invested in other sectors to enhance the lives of the country’s indigenous peoples, injecting in excess of $41.7 billion in their communities. This is in addition to another $12.7 billion in the Amerindian Development Fund.

“Today, you have not only village shops, you have sawmills, ecotourism facilities, you have bus service, you have modern agriculture, and you have every single facet of national development existing in your villages,” Ali stated.

Moreover, the president highlighted that over the last five years Amerindian communities also benefitted from some $14.2 billion under the Low Carbon Development Fund.

With the Government’s investments in every sector, the Guyanese Leader posited that indigenous lives have improved in areas such as education, healthcare, tourism, energy, security, infrastructure, water and access to various Government and commercial services, among others.

In fact, he noted that the ICT investments have allowed Amerindians to enhance themselves and build capacity without having to leave their homes.

“You have doctors, medics, nurses, teachers, soldiers, Police Officers [and] fire officers right from your village, serving your regions and serving your communities… We have made those investments so that your children can become trained teachers right in their villages. And thousands of your children are now becoming trained teachers in your villages… We have invested in you so you can stand tall. You can stand proud. You can stand with dignity. You can stand with honour,” the Head of State declared.

Despite these investments, however, President Ali recognised that more work needs to be done to further enhance the lives of the country’s first peoples. Reflecting on the advancements over these past few years, the Guyanese Leader contended that the governing People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) is the only “trusted partner” that can deliver this kind of development.

“There is still a lot more to get done.  There are still a lot more roads, a lot more schools, a lot more hospitals, a lot more investment in ecotourism, a lot more investment in the children, women, and families of the indigenous community… You know that we will make those investments for you,” he declared.

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Guyana’s emerging El Niño conditions present a serious test for the resilience of the agriculture sector, water-management systems, energy infrastructure and national food supply. With conditions expected to persist through the remainder of 2026 and potentially into the first quarter of 2027, preparedness can no longer remain confined to forums, forecasts and advisories. The priority must now be sustained implementation of measures capable of protecting production and livelihoods.
The reported possibility of up to 80 hot-spell days during 2026, nearly three times the historical average, underscores the seriousness of the situation. Extreme heat and reduced rainfall can place pressure on irrigation systems, water supplies, crop yields and livestock. The consequences can extend beyond farms, affecting food prices, household expenditure and national food security.
Agriculture remains particularly vulnerable because production depends heavily on reliable access to water. The immediate challenge, therefore, is not simply the availability of infrastructure but the capacity to operate, maintain and coordinate that infrastructure effectively.
The construction of high-level canals in Regions Five and Six is an important intervention. Designed to improve drainage while also providing storage capacity for irrigation, such infrastructure could become increasingly valuable under drier conditions.
Water conservation must consequently become a central component of the national response. Available water must be stored where feasible, allocated according to agricultural needs and protected from unnecessary losses. Irrigation systems require regular inspection, while farmers need timely information on water availability and practical guidance on efficient use.
The situation also highlights the importance of translating climate information into decisions that can be acted upon at farm level. Weather forecasts have limited value if technical information does not reach farmers in a clear and understandable form. Communication must provide practical guidance on planting periods, crop selection, irrigation requirements, crop duration and anticipated weather conditions.
The development of digital tools capable of providing information on planting periods, irrigation availability, pests and diseases offers an opportunity to place useful information directly in the hands of farmers. Such tools be effective if they are properly explained and supported by reliable technical services.
Farmers facing unusual weather conditions require regular contact with agricultural officers can assist with interpreting forecasts, adjusting production practices, identifying risks and responding quickly when conditions change.
The rice sector has already received guidance concerning irrigation, drainage, planting schedules and crop duration.
Extreme heat can affect animal health, productivity and feed intake. Adequate water, shade, ventilation and nutrition must be part of livestock preparedness rather than being treated as secondary considerations.
Agriculture does not operate independently of the electricity and water sectors. Prolonged heat can increase electricity consumption, placing additional pressure on the national grid. Higher temperatures can increase demand for cooling while agricultural operations may require greater pumping capacity for irrigation.
The reported decision to encourage large electricity consumers with self-generation capacity to reduce reliance on the national grid during peak periods illustrates the interconnected nature of climate preparedness. Energy conservation and agricultural water management must be considered alongside each other because both are affected by extreme weather.
The current circumstances should not be interpreted as a reason to reduce agricultural production. Rather, the conditions reinforce the need for smarter and more efficient production. Climate-smart agriculture, improved water storage, better irrigation management, accurate weather information and stronger extension services can reduce vulnerability while maintaining output.
El Niño is a climate phenomenon and its consequences are shaped by preparedness, planning and execution. Early action as being highlight by Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha, can reduce disruption; delayed action can increase costs.

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Well, one thing your Eyewitness knows is that if this is September, then “school open”, and it’s Amerindian Heritage Month!! On the former, parents are now breathing great sighs of relief that the “apples” (mangoes?) of their eyes are now out of their hair – for at least seven hours every weekday!! With our newfound wealth as the fastest-growing economy in the world and everybody owning a car, your Eyewitness had noticed a new tradition developing – drivers bemoaning the reappearance of the ubiquitous school buses on the road clogging up traffic!!
But September ain’t just kids continuing another term – it’s a whole new school year with a new cohort entering different grades and, for the wee ones, entering school itself for the very first time!! And since we know that even as adults new situations create tensions and anxiety, let’s spare a thought for how our kids are dealing with their new pressures!! Your Eyewitness has been reading a lot about how the nature of education itself is changing radically at this time – with AI just ONE of the novelties – creating another source of anxiety!! Especially for teachers who’re gonna have to figure out whether ChatGPT or some other bot is submitting homework – rather than their charges!!
One of the sadder new developments that your Eyewitness noticed in our schools is the “gang” violence that’s erupting across our fair land! Now, whenever you put kids together, you’re gonna have beefs developing between some of them – who didn’t witness or participate in one dustup or another after school?? But today, knives, and even guns have entered the picture, and if this continues, there’s gonna be little difference between schoolyards and prison yards!! In your Eyewitness’ estimate, parents MUST play a much greater role to steer their kids into the productive paths that schools were supposed to provide!
Then we come to the second fork of September – Amerindian Heritage Month!! When your Eyewitness was a wee lad (and you can tell he went to a Church of SCOTLAND School!!) this wasn’t around!! Sadly, the only thing he knew about our native peoples was a poem – “There was an Indian” – which started out by claiming the poor fellow had “known no change”!! That Amerindians were living in a state much as they had done through the millennia – an uncivilised state!!
Well, looking around today, things have certainly changed, haven’t they?? Rather than living in the forests and being seen as “backward”, they’re praised for “sustaining the environment” – and getting big bucks for doing so!! The PPP has given titles to Amerindian lands and schools; hospitals and community centres now anchor their villages!!
Not to mention new employment opportunities!!

…up a new tradition
When the British saw that the West Indian Federation they’d created with their colonies in this neck of the woods – in which we chose to stay out – wasn’t going nowhere, they decided to give them “independence”!! Yes, “give” – so let’s not get too carried away with those claiming one or the other of our leaders FOUGHT for independence!! This can be gleaned from the fact that Trinidad and Jamaica became independent in 1962, while ours didn’t come till 1966!!
The British had to twiddle their thumbs for a bit while the Yanks figured out how to get rid of Jagan, whom they decided was an unacceptable “commie”!! Anyhow, ever since then the Trinis have cultivated a sneer towards us – which their oil helped to grease!! With that as background, you can hopefully appreciate our Warriors absolutely TROUNCING the T&T Knightriders last Monday night – in T&T and ON their Independence Day!!
That the victory came off the back of a scintillating hundred by the now somewhat erratic Hetmeyer made it all that sweeter!!

…PNC alive
Yesterday your Eyewitness wrote about the GY$6.7 BILLION taxes the PNC owed the City on their Sophia HQ!! Well, he just learnt that the PNC-controlled City Council just forgave the PNC’s debt by collecting just GY$30M!!
Political incest!!

The post Keeping… up traditions appeared first on Guyana Times.

…other Guyanese companies urged to tap into funding opportunities

Shipping firm PAS Cargo Guyana Incorporated is the first Guyanese company to secure financing from IDB Lab – the innovation and venture arm of the Inter-American Development Bank.
The loan agreement was signed by Executive Director of PAS Cargo, Shridat Narine, and General Manager of IDB Lab, Graham Macmillan, on Tuesday at the Finance Ministry in Georgetown. The signing was witnessed by Senior Minister with Responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, and other officials.
Established in 2012, PAS Cargo Guyana Incorporated provides logistics and freight-forwarding services, including cargo handling, customs broking, warehousing and last-mile delivery.
According to the Finance Ministry in a statement on Tuesday, the company’s operation is IDB Lab’s pioneering loan to a Guyanese Private Sector company and marks an important milestone in the bank’s support for locally led innovation and enterprise growth.

Speaking during the simple signing ceremony, Singh congratulated PAS Cargo on this breakthrough. The Finance Minister further used the opportunity to reiterate his support for such ventures, reminding that the Government continues to encourage and support more Guyanese companies to engage with the IDB Lab and the Private Sector arms of other international financial institutions to get funding.
Reflecting on PAS Cargo’s experience, Narine explained that it was refreshing for the company to gain this success through the loan application process and receiving positive feedback from the IDB Lab, recalling that the bank’s team assisted the company through all of the stages. He added that this resonates well with the company and is a breakthrough for them since the company’s 14 years of establishment in Guyana, even before the country was producing oil.

Significant deal
Meanwhile, also delivering remarks prior to the signing, Macmillan posited that with PAS Cargo being the first Guyanese company to have such a loan approved, he was happy to be part of this significant deal. The IDB Lab General Manager further used the opportunity to express hope for many more such deals to come.
In fact, prior to Tuesday’s loan signing, Minister Singh and his team held discussions on this with the IDB Group officials, including the visiting IDB Lab General Manager and Country Representative for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group in Guyana, Lorena Solórzano-Salazar.
The two teams discussed how they can continue to work together to broaden the bank’s private footprints in Guyana through financial assistance for more Private Sector projects countrywide.
Macmillan is on his first official visit to Guyana, and during that engagement on Tuesday, Dr Singh welcomed and congratulated him on his appointment.
IDB Lab is the innovation and venture arm of the IDB, focusing on entrepreneurship and technology to cocreate solutions for development challenges and spark new industries for growth in Latin America and the Caribbean. It supports high-impact start-ups and the innovation ecosystems they need to thrive through flexible financing, practical knowledge, and global connections.
The Government of Guyana has been encouraging IDB investments in the country to assist with driving economic growth. This aligns with its broad-based strategy that promotes and supports growth in the non-oil economy across key sectors, including construction, agriculture, tourism, mining, manufacturing and logistics, which include companies such as PAS Cargo.
In fact, back in April, IDB Invest – the Private Sector arm of the regional bank – had indicated its intention to expand its investment portfolio in Guyana, eyeing opportunities in an expanded range of sectors, including agribusiness, tourism, infrastructure and telecommunication, among others.
Following the regional institution’s announcement of a capital increase at its annual meeting in February, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of IDB Invest, James Scriven, during a subsequent visit to Georgetown, disclosed that he has already set his eyes on new opportunities north of US$300 million in Guyana.
Since then, IDB Invest has been engaging the local Private Sector to explore opportunities for deeper collaboration aimed at supporting Guyana’s rapidly growing Private Sector.
During one such engagement in June, IDB officials and representatives from the Private Sector Commission (PSC) met to discuss expanding access to financing, strengthening business competitiveness, and identifying strategic interventions to support sustainable economic growth.
IDB Invest had highlighted its commitment to providing innovative financial solutions, advisory services, and technical support to help businesses scale and access new opportunities.
Also, in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting and signing ceremony were Chief Planning Officer at the Finance Ministry Dr Tarachand Balgobin, Guyana’s Counsellor to the IDB Board Navita Anganu-Ramroop, and Private Sector Development Consultant at IDB Lab, Maria Niles.

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…clears way for committal proceedings to resume tomorrow

The Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) on Tuesday rejected the latest attempt by United States sanctioned and indicted Opposition Leader, Azruddin Mohamed and his father, businessman Nazar Mohamed, to halt extradition proceedings against them.
The development clears the way for the committal proceedings before Chief Magistrate Judy Latchman to continue on Thursday at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
Guyana Times was reliably informed that the Mohameds had applied to the CCJ for special leave to appeal the August 27 ruling of the Court of Appeal, which allowed the extradition committal proceedings before the Magistrates’ Courts to continue.
The application comes as the Court of Appeal considers their constitutional challenge to certain provisions of the Fugitive Offenders (Amendment) Act.
The CCJ dismissed the application for special leave and refused the other reliefs sought by the father and son. The decision follows several unsuccessful attempts by the Mohameds to have the extradition proceedings suspended at the Magistrates’ Court, High Court, Court of Appeal and, most recently, the CCJ.
Their latest application arose from a constitutional challenge filed with the Court of Appeal to aspects of the Fugitive Offenders (Amendment) Act, following a February ruling by Acting Chief Justice Navindra Singh.
In that ruling, Justice Singh found that Section 8(3)(B) of the Act was inconsistent with the Constitution of Guyana, while upholding the constitutionality of the other provisions challenged by the Mohameds.
The father and son subsequently returned to the Court of Appeal seeking a stay of the proceedings before Magistrate Latchman pending determination of their substantive constitutional appeal.
At that hearing, Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde, who represented the Mohameds, argued that an interim stay was necessary to ensure their appeal could be meaningfully heard without their liberty being affected before the constitutional questions were resolved.
The State, led by Attorney General Anil Nandlall, SC, opposed the application and urged the Court of Appeal to allow the extradition proceedings to continue.
The State opposed the application on the basis that allowing the Magistrates’ Court proceedings to continue would not undermine the Mohameds’ constitutional appeal or result in their immediate surrender to the United States.
It argued that the men would retain access to legal safeguards, including appellate review, habeas corpus and bail, while another stay would cause further delays to the already interrupted extradition proceedings. The Court of Appeal subsequently allowed the committal proceedings before Magistrate Latchman to continue, but barred her from making any final disposition in the matter pending the determination of the constitutional matter.
The latest development before the CCJ now removes another attempt by the Mohameds to interrupt those proceedings. The CCJ had previously granted an interim stay on March 25, 2026, temporarily halting the extradition proceedings while it considered the Mohameds’ appeal challenging the Authority to Proceed (ATP) on grounds of alleged political bias.
The stay remained in effect until July 29, 2026, when the CCJ dismissed the appeal and discharged the interim stay, clearing the way for the proceedings before the Magistrates’ Court to resume.
The extradition proceedings stem from a formal request made by the United States in October 2025 for the surrender of Azruddin and Nazar Mohamed.
A US federal grand jury in Florida indicted the two men on allegations including wire and mail fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and customs violations.
The US is seeking their extradition to face prosecution on the federal charges. The allegations are linked to an alleged US$50 million gold export and tax-evasion scheme.
US prosecutors have alleged that the men evaded taxes and royalties on more than 10,000 kilogrammes of gold through falsified customs declarations and the reuse of export seals.
The Mohameds have denied the allegations. They have remained on $150,000 bail each since their arrest in October 2025, with conditions requiring them to surrender their passports and report weekly to the Ruimveldt Police Station.

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…security guard intercepted at Church St with gun and ammo

A Police pursuit along the Mabura Trail, Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice), has resulted in the discovery of 133 rounds of live ammunition and a motorcycle on Monday.

Based on reports received, on the day in question at about 22:40h, ranks on a Police operation near Block Yard, Wismar, Linden, observed a masked male driving a motorcycle bearing registration number CM 84 without taillights.
At the time, the driver, who was dressed in dark-coloured clothing, was carrying a grey haversack and was proceeding west along the Mabura Trail Access Road. Upon seeing this, the ranks signalled the motorcyclist to stop, but he continued his journey, prompting a pursuit.
During the chase, the motorcyclist reportedly fell and escaped into thick vegetation, leaving the haversack and motorcycle behind.
A search of the haversack unearthed 33 live rounds of .223-calibre ammunition, 100 live rounds of 9mm bullets, and several pieces of clothing and other personal effects.
The ammunition, motorcycle, and other items were taken to the Wismar Police Station as investigations continue.
Meanwhile, a 40-year-old security guard was taken into custody following the discovery of a Glock 17 pistol, along with a magazine containing seven live 9mm rounds and one spent shell.
According to information, at about 00:10h on Tuesday, ranks in a Police operation intercepted the security guard, who was at the time driving a motor scooter along Church Street, Alberttown, Georgetown.
Upon questioning, the suspect admitted that he was not the holder of a firearm licence. As such, he was arrested and taken to the Kitty Police Station, where he remains in custody pending charges.

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