Govt pushing for more consortiums, youths to invest in Guyana’s agri-diversification plan – Pres Ali

In the five years since the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government has been in office, more and more consortiums across various sectors have been forming.
According to President Dr Irfaan Ali, one of the areas where the Government wants to see more consortiums focusing their attention is on Guyana’s agriculture diversification plan.
During a recent address, the Head of State, who has taken on a Region-wide leadership role in advancing food security, revealed that his government has been taking a hands-on approach towards fostering the creation of these consortiums.
He identified private cane farmers as one of their targets, encouraging them to work together and pool their resources.
“We’re now working on building more consortiums. In Berbice, with the private cane farmers. In Region Three, with the private cane farmers, to be part of the agri diversification plan,” President Ali said.
Another group of persons the Government has been encouraging to get into investing are Guyana’s youth as well as its athletes.

According to the President, the PPP/C Government’s focus is on not only building out a sustainable economy, but ensuring that a wide cross-section of Guyanese is participating in that economy.
“Bringing them, young people and young groups across the country, bringing them into an investment environment. Giving them access to land, so that they’ll be part of making us self-sufficient in hatching eggs.
“Making us self-sufficient in table eggs. Making us self-sufficient in meeting the growing demand for meat. That is where the land and investment and partnership is going. A Government that is interested in building partnerships with the citizens of this country,” President Ali said.

Agriculture
The PPP/C Government has been consistent in urging businesses to form consortiums. And that urging has been bearing fruit. In the agriculture sector, one of the most well-known examples of a consortium has been the Guyana Stockfeeds Limited, Edun Farms and Bounty Farm Limited group.
Other investors are Royal Chicken, SBM Wood, Dubulay Ranch, and the Brazilian-owned N F Agriculture, who are cultivating over 1000 acres of soya bean in the Tacama Savannah.
Last year, Guyana was able to cultivate 12,000 acres of corn and soya.
The Government is hoping that this acreage can increase to 25,000 acres, with two harvests annually, during 2025.
Moreover, the Government has been venturing into new crops, with the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) starting trials for wheat last year, following the importation of several varieties from Argentina and India. More strains of wheat are currently being examined for the Guyana market.
Last year, it was announced that the Government of Guyana would be making available five acres of land in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) for youths in the region to establish an agro-processing business.

And more than two years after Government had launched a company, the Agriculture Innovation Entrepreneurship Programme (AIEP), more than 1000 young people have already been attracted to the initiative. As a matter of fact, these youths are all shareholders of this company, whose portfolio of climate smart agricultural projects continues to grow.

Logistics
In the field of oil and gas, the Government has also been pushing for consortiums to form. This has resulted, for instance, in local auditors joining forces to examine ExxonMobil’s cost oil spending, to make sure they meet pre-set parameters.
A prime example of this is VHE Consulting – the Guyanese consortium that conducted the second cost oil audit on ExxonMobil Guyana spanning 2018 to 2020. The consortium, which comprises Guyanese firms Ramdihal and Haynes Chartered Accounting, Vitality Accounting and Consultancy, and Eclisar, in partnership with Oklahoma-based Martindale Consultants and Switzerland-based SGS, were able to win the contract to conduct the third audit into the US-based oil major.
Still in oil and gas, but with a particular focus towards logistics, the US$300 million Vreed-en-Hoop shore base, which officially opened only last month, is also a product of a joint venture between NRG Holdings Inc, a 100 per cent Guyanese-owned consortium, and Jan De Nul, an international maritime infrastructure company. Together, these companies collaborated, with support from the Government.
The consortium of investors in the Vreed-en-Hoop shore base includes Nicholas Deygoo-Boyer and Eddie Boyer of National Hardware Guyana Limited; and Andron Alphonso of ZRN Investments Inc. NRG hold a majority stake of 85 per cent in VEHSI, while the remaining 15 per cent is owned by Jan De Nul – the company that constructed the facility.
And only on Friday, local shipping competitors Muneshwers Limited and John Fernandes Limited marked their newfound collaboration to enhance port services in Guyana with the commissioning of two mobile harbour cranes – a US$14 million Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) investment that has been lauded as a win for local content in the country.