In a bid to redirect business, commerce, industry, and trade back to residents of Wismar in Linden, Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice), the Linden Mayor and Town Council (LM&TC) is mulling plans to establish an ATM machine at the market.
The initiative aims to increase the traffic and business flow within the vicinity of the Wismar market square instead of having persons travel to McKenzie shore to access banking services through providers Citizens Bank and Republic Bank Limited.
Guyana Times was told that the ATM machine would be the first in the area, even though there are an estimate of four ATM machines in Linden.
In an interview with this publication, Linden Mayor Sharma Solomon disclosed that this isolation of ATMs is a major hurdle for residents living on the Wismar shore and makes banking operations difficult for residents, particularly those who live in faraway communities such as Wisroc among others.
The Linden Wismar Market
“It goes beyond the vendors; it goes to the entire banking in Wismar because in the absence of that piece of infrastructure to do banking and banking services Wismar is excluded from that,” Solomon said.
“Now that fact that the market square was chosen is because of the economic activities that takes place in the area, but it is also to allow for a total ecosystem to be created around the area so that when people are doing banking business, they’re going to have other business. And this is part of our efforts to bring some light and excitement around the market,” he added.
Plans commence
Meanwhile, also speaking with this publication was Town Clerk at the Linden Mayor and Town Council (LM&TC) Lennox Gasper, who disclosed that engagements have already commence with Citizen’s bank to establish the ATM.
“We did reach out to Republic [Bank] and they’re not really interested in establishing any other ATM machines [there], of course you know they have a branch on Mackenzie but no ATM on Wismar for them security is the issue, but Citizens is willing to establish one on the Wismar side at the Wismar market,” he stated.
However, the town clerk noted that the construction of the ATM at the market has been delayed due to a lack of communication between bank officials and the council.
“The Citizens Bank manager, he would have committed to me that he would have a draft of the contract done but he never got back to me,” the town clerk said.
Moreover, Gasper explained that for the initiative to be successful additional systems must be put in place by the council to ensure that the market vendors fully benefit from the project.
“What they’re actually attempting to do is to redirect traffic of persons to the market, but the Wismar market requires much more than an ATM machine. The Wismar market requires the council activating its system and principal of regulation and having all the vendors along the road side to be relocated into the market people will go where the market is” He explained.
The clerk called for the enhancement of stalls at the market, this was done in an effort to create a more aesthetically pleasing environment for citizens as well as tourist.
