Over 470,000 Guyanese receive $47B in $100K cash grants

…as registration for cash grants via cheque opens

In keeping with a previous commitment that all eligible Guyanese would benefit from the $100,000 cash grant initiative, the Guyana Government is now inviting persons who want to receive the money via cheques to get registered.
“[This phase] is intended particularly to benefit those persons who do not have bank accounts or who, for reasons best known to themselves, would prefer to have their cash grant delivered to them by way of cheques,” Senior Minister with Responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh announced during an update on the National $100,000 Cash Grant Initiative on Wednesday evening.
In order to get the cash grant cheques, Guyanese living here who are 18 years and older would first have to register on the online portal at cashgrant.gov.gy, where a new feature has been added to give registrants the option of selecting cheques as a means to receive the grant.
The registration process remains the same and requires a valid identification document as well as other details along with a liveliness check. Instead of previously including bank account details, registrants would have to simply select the cheque option.
“Once you request cheque payment, your details will then be entered into the system. We will then undertake a simple verification process to confirm your eligibility for the cash grant. We will then process these records… [and] cut cheques or print cheques for those persons who chose this modality and who have passed the simple verification checks that we’ll be applying. And once we have cut those cheques, we will be distributing them to several locations countrywide,” the Minister explained.
When the cheques are ready, beneficiaries will be notified via one of two means. Firstly, on the portal there would be updates on the status of your application, including details of whether the cheque is ready and at which location it can be picked up. Additionally, beneficiaries would receive a phone call on the number provided during the registration process informing them of where the cheque is available for collection.
This introduction of paying out the cash grant via cheques is the third phase of this National $100,000 Cash Grant Initiative being rolled out.
The first phase of the distribution process saw persons receiving direct deposits of the cash grant into their bank accounts, including central Government employees and citizens who self-registered using their mobile phones.
The Government then moved to the second phase, which entailed special outreaches to hinterland and outlying communities which did not have access to banking facilities, as well as homes of shut-ins, and persons in shelters, hostels and senior citizen homes. These persons were registered by Government teams and were subsequently processed for cheque payments.
To date, the number of persons who have received the $100,000 cash grant through self-registration on the portal using their mobile phones, along with those who were processed for cheque payments, amounts to some 470,420, placing billions of dollars into the pockets of Guyanese people.
“This translates…into a total of $47 billion being injected into the disposable incomes of the Guyanese population,” the Finance Minister stated.
But even as the Government has introduced the cheque payments, Dr Singh is urging Guyanese who do not have a bank account to get one, something he says is critical as part of the Guyana Government’s vision for financial inclusion and financial literacy among all citizens.
“We will continue to encourage you to open bank accounts, and we will at these locations have teams or persons available…even when you collect your cheque to still encourage you and assist you to open bank accounts using the online facilities that several banks have implemented, because even if you have chosen in this instance to receive your cash grant by way of a cheque, a bank account will prove useful to you in the future,” Dr Singh noted.

Exercise patience
Meanwhile, for those persons who have already registered to receive the cash grant via their bank accounts and are yet to receive the money, the Finance Minister is urging that patience be exercised as he reminded them of the monumental task this endeavour is and the fact that more than 470,000 persons have already successfully collected their money.
This latest National Cash Grant Initiative, the second round of distribution, will see a total of $60 billion transferred to Guyanese. It follows the previous exercise from late 2024 into 2025, during which over $60 billion of disposable income was transferred into the pockets of more than 600,000 Guyanese.
These two cash distribution exercises come on the heels of the first National Cash Grant of $25,000 per household that was paid when the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) resumed office in 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.