Guyanese can expect early budget in 2026 – VP Jagdeo

…as Govt to roll out development bank for SMEs in 2026

Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has announced that Guyanese can expect an early national budget in 2026, with the establishment of a long-promised development bank high on the Government’s agenda.
During his weekly press conference on Thursday, Jagdeo assured citizens that the Government has already begun working on many of its campaign commitments, noting that efforts to deliver on promises started immediately after the 2025 General and Regional Elections.
He stressed that work is quietly ongoing to ensure that the agenda for the next five years is fully implemented, noting that preparations are underway for an early 2026 budget that will provide funding for several projects.
“We’re not the other parties that are just walking around the place looking for a photo op or anything, or to get relevance in the newspaper. As I said before, the elections are done; a lot of people keep asking me, ‘When are the small contracts coming out?’ When are you going to start? You spoke a lot about the drainage, you know, like concrete drains and concrete roads and those things. Well, the new budget we’re working on [is] an early budget so we have funds in the next year to start all of those projects in the city [and] across the country. A lot we’re going to resume; a lot of that work – the road building and the concrete drains and the electricity lights,” Jagdeo told media on Thursday.
On the jobs front, the Vice President said that the Government is pursuing expanded investment in several sectors of the economy to create more employment opportunities.
Jagdeo stressed that while some projects may not yet be visible to the public, extensive planning and groundwork are already in motion.
“The education agenda – I just saw the President going through [that] with a group, looking at the digital school online. The discussion was ongoing when I left there a few minutes ago. So what I wanted to say today is that although you don’t see as much, a lot is being worked on behind the scenes to ensure that we have the agenda fulfilled in the next five years. And as I said before, elections are going to be in 2031. So that’s when we will – we’d have to [accomplish] all of these promises,” he added.

SMEs
The Vice President further explained that the long-promised development bank will target small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs), particularly those unable to access financing through the traditional banking system. He stressed that too many Guyanese, including young people and women across all 10 administrative regions, have viable business ideas or start-up ventures but remain unable to grow due to the lack of affordable credit and collateral requirements.
While reforms to the formal banking system are underway to allow easier access to capital through a range of instruments, including project financing, invoice discounting, and commercial lending, the vice President said the new development bank will cater to those who remain excluded.
“We will work with the banking system to develop a range of instruments, from discounting trade invoices to project financing to commercial bank financing, that would allow Guyanese to better use the banking system to support their business needs. And we will also, as promised, create this development bank for a group of people who may not have access to the commercial banks so that they, too, can realise the benefits and opportunities of our country,” the vice President explained.
Work on the initiative has already advanced, with a concept paper under review. Jagdeo disclosed that a second draft will be discussed next week, with clear directions already issued to ensure the plan reflects the Government’s intentions. Financing for the bank will be included in the early 2026 budget, with the aim of making the institution fully operational before the end of next year.
“A lot of work has already been done in developing the concept. As I said before, next week we’re meeting to have a discussion on the second draft of the concept. We already have clear… We’ve given the people who are working on this, these concept papers, clear indications of what our intentions are, and we want to make sure that those are reflected in the final concept document before we proceed to implement. And so that is very important to us,” he added.