‘A blatant lie’ – Jagdeo on US-sanctioned Azruddin Mohamed housing distribution claims

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has sharply rejected claims made by US-sanctioned businessman-turned-political aspirant Azruddin Mohamed that he has built more homes for citizens than the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government, branding the assertion a “blatant lie.”
Jagdeo was responding to statements made during Mohamed’s recent public appearance, where the businessman boasted of constructing more houses with his own money than the Government has using taxpayer dollars.
While acknowledging that Azruddin Mohamed did assist a few families with the construction of their home, he made it unequivocally clear that Mohamed could never, from a policy directive, surpass the PPP/C house lot distribution programme, even with additionally funds.
“Do you know what it takes to prepare 50,000 house lots? Do you know what it takes? Not just to go and hide a ton of gold and smuggle it one time out of the country. It takes much more to do that. It’s a large-scale task. You have to clear areas, put in drains. You have to put in light water. That’s what’s happening now. $300 billion. He’s making a joke of it: “Oh, they only give out the 50,000 lots. They didn’t build homes. He built more homes than the Government”.
“He said this – a blatant lie. You had about 5000 houses built by the Government since we took office, although we didn’t promise that in the manifesto. We lowered the mortgage rate. We put in the free cement and steel programme to address increasing costs for people, for low-income people,” Jagdeo added.
The Government has exceeded its target to deliver 50,000 house lots promised in its 2020 manifesto, with single women, young people, and low-income families among the main beneficiaries.
According to Ministry of Housing and Water, of the total allocations, 47 per cent have gone to single women, and 54 per cent have been granted to young Guyanese aged 21 to 35, providing them with the opportunity to take their first step towards homeownership.

Notably, 90 per cent of the over 50,000 lots have been designated for low-income families, emphasising the administration’s commitment to providing affordable housing and improving the living standards of all Guyanese.
Against this backdrop, Jagdeo ridiculed Mohamed’s comparison, saying the businessman downplayed the scale of what it takes to prepare communities.
“We have a lot of homes to build in the future because a lot of people are now getting their land. That’s why we said we will assist to also help people to build homes in the next term. This is part of the manifesto because we want every person to own their own home. The blatant lie that this guy tells, he says he built more houses, he told the people in Parfait, than the Government of Guyana did with their own money, with their money because of the taxes stolen. So that’s what we said here. We recognise all the things that haven’t been done as yet,” he added.
For the next five years, the PPP has committed to building on the success of its housing programme, to ensure every Guyanese becomes a homeowner.
The administration has already committed to distributing an additional 30,000 house lots between 2026 and 2027, with an emphasis on meeting the housing needs of young people.
Further, more citizens are set to benefit from the steel and cement subsidy programme, which allows eligible persons to receive either cement only (for foundation construction) or both steel and cement, depending on their income bracket and stage of construction.
The initiative was launched by Government in 2022 to accelerate homeownership and ease the financial burden on first-time homebuilders. Nationally, the Government has already distributed over 2000 vouchers, representing more than $500 million invested into the homebuilding sector.