Sport’s largest Budget yet: $8B allocated to Sport in 2025 National Budget

With a number of international-standard stadiums and multipurpose sports halls to be completed, hundreds of community grounds to be rehabilitated, and several other projects being on the cards for completion in the year ahead, Guyana’s Sport sector had received its largest Budget allocation yet — a whopping $8B for the fiscal year 2025.
Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, in unveiling the 2025 National Budget during a sitting of the National Assembly at the Arthur Chung Conference Center (ACCC) on Friday afternoon, revealed the Government’s generosity towards Sport, and took the time to detail some of the projects that can be expected from the Sport sector, which falls under young Minister Charles Ramson Jr, who has responsibility for the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport (MCYS).
Dr Singh revealed that the International Stadium at Palmyra in East Berbice is on track for completion this year, while another stadium at Crane, West Coast Demerara is earmarked for commencement. In addition, work will continue on several multipurpose grounds around the country, while multi- purpose Sports Halls would be constructed at Leonora, Lethem, Mabaruma, Mahdia and Mongreppo Hill in Bartica.

Finance Minister
Dr Ashni Singh

Moreover, in excess of 450 community grounds are being rehabilitated around the country, and these would see upgrading works being continued this year, with some $2B of Sport’s allocation going towards this major undertaking.
“In 2025, we’ve allocated $2B for community grounds, including $1B for the procurement and installation of lights, so that these grounds can be used after the sun has set; because, in many of these communities, there’s tremendous demand for night cricket, night football, and night sport,” Dr Singh divulged.
Improving on an initiative in 2024 that had seen international track and field coaches travelling to Guyana to assess the talents of over 200 athletes in related disciplines, Dr Singh disclosed plans for athletics in 2025 that are directly geared at participation in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Dr Singh revealed, “23 athletes (of the 200 athletes assessed) were identified for specialised training, and we planned in 2025 to develop an elite training programme for athletes and coaches, to improve the prospects for them and to create a world class team to participate in the Olympics in 2028.”
Dr Singh also took the time to share plans for the sport of basketball, which would see increase in the number of its facilities in 2025.
“In basketball, for example, we will be building tarmacs and we’ll be working with coaches to rollout broad-based involvement in the sport at the community level, at the school level, so that young people are playing every day and they become accustomed to playing with a basketball every day. And then working, of course, working with administrators to organise formal coaching and tournaments, etc. so that our young people can really get to international quality proficiency,” he declared in the National Assembly.
Sport’s 2025 Budget sees a $3B improvement over what had obtained in 2024, where $5B was expended on the sector. It is thus far the largest budgetary allocation in Sport’s history.