Govt withdraws further $41.6B from NRF

The Government has made its second withdrawal from the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) for 2023, intended to fund programmes under this year’s $781.9 billion budget.

On Monday, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh announced the withdrawal of US$200 million ($41.6 billion) from the fund. In accordance with the law, this sum will be transferred to the Consolidated Fund.
“It would be recalled that in February of this year, Government made its first withdrawal for the year, amounting to US$200 million equivalent to G$41.6 billion. This brings the accumulated withdrawals to date in 2023 from the NRF to US$400 million, equivalent to G$83.2 billion.”
“In keeping with the NRF Act 2021, as part of the Budget 2023 process, parliamentary approval was granted for a total of US$1.002 billion to be transferred during fiscal year 2023,” the Ministry further said.
Dr Singh further reminded that when the NRF Act 2021 came into operation on January 1, 2022, this was a major step for Guyana in improving its transparency and accountability and overall management of the country’s natural resource wealth.
“The PPP/C Government will continue to work aggressively through sound and transformative investments of oil resources from the NRF, utilising these resources in a clear and transparent manner, to the benefit of present and future generations,” he further assured.
The first withdrawal for this year was made in February.
In December 2022, the Government had made its third withdrawal — US$207.6 million (G$43 billion) in oil funds — from the Natural Resource Fund (NRF), which went towards financing Guyana’s national development plans.
In announcing that withdrawal, the Finance Minister had said, “It would be recalled that in May and July of this year (2022), the Government made withdrawals totalling US$400 million, equivalent to G$83 billion.
This brings the accumulated withdrawals from the NRF for the year 2022 to US$607.6 million, equivalent to G$126 billion, in line with approved amount in the 2022 budget.”
In January of this year, the Bank of Guyana signed an agreement to officially hand over control of the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) to the Board of Directors appointed by the President.
According to Section 5 (6) (d) of the Act, the Board is required to enter into an operational agreement with the Bank, so that management of the Fund can change hands. This agreement was signed two days after the reading of the 2023 budget.
The funds from the NRF have their origins in the Stabroek Block – the only block currently producing oil. The block is 6.6 million acres (26,800 square kilometres). (G3)