President Dr. Irfaan Ali made a strong call for Guyanese investors to directly participate in the country’s booming energy sector. Speaking at the 2025 Local Content Summit, Ali laid out a strategy centered on local ownership, risk-sharing, and new investment tools.
“We want Guyanese to be investors,” Ali said. “Guyanese here, Guyanese in the diaspora, and then regional citizens to be investors, investing with international partners.”
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He said the government will support co-investment in large and medium-sized energy projects, including upcoming ventures in the gas sector.
“Co-investment is about maximizing the local capacity, matching that with international capacity, and then the government also reducing the risk of those investments,” the president stated.
Ali also emphasized that Guyanese involvement will not be limited to ownership. The plan includes a broader wealth creation framework built on financial literacy, smal and medium-sized enterprise (SME) development, and regulatory support. “This is about creating wealth at the individual level, at a family level, at a community level and a national level,” he said.
He announced that the government will establish a development fund specifically for small and medium enterprises, particularly those in the energy value chain.
“We want this fund to catalyze more financing from the financial system,” Ali said. “It’s a mechanism that can allow a good idea from a small business to become a medium-sized idea.”
Ali stressed the importance of investment instruments tailored for Guyanese and diaspora participation.
“We are working on creating investment behavior, tools and instruments that will allow your capital to work for you,” he explained. “Instruments that will give higher returns… backed by the government, just like a sovereign guarantee.”
He further outlined plans for targeted energy support to strengthen local industries.
“As we become energy rich, we want to provide energy support in a targeted way — manufacturing, agro-processing, certain industrial development,” he said.
“There’s success, there’s appetite. This has opened up so many opportunities, especially for women-owned businesses.”
The Summit is the brainchild of MBW Services and Prestige Management Consultants. Abbigale Loncke Watson, CEO of MBW, welcomed attendees to the event pointing to the importance of this year’s theme: ‘Collaborate, invest, build… shaping Guyana’s future together’.
She highlighted the partnership between MBW and Prestige Management Consultants, calling it “proof of what is possible when Guyanese business unites with a purpose.” She celebrated Guyanese women leading local businesses as “living examples of the power of collaboration, trust and vision.”
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Anita Ramprasad of Prestige Management Consultants explained that the summit’s program was curated with participants in mind, as “local content may be one legislation, but every year it evolves.” She promised practical engagement, noting that all speakers would take questions.
Outlining the “stakeholder quadrant” of policymakers, the oil and gas sector, vendors, citizens, and business organizations, she said, “Today, you’re going to have a little bit of everything that you need to have a deeper, clearer and more actionable understanding of the local content.”
