{"id":32243,"date":"2026-10-05T06:41:41","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T10:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/?p=32243"},"modified":"2026-10-05T07:04:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T11:04:18","slug":"government-announces-board-of-directors-for-guyana-development-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/government-announces-board-of-directors-for-guyana-development-bank\/","title":{"rendered":"Government announces Board of Directors for Guyana Development Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Government has announced the inaugural Board of Directors for the Guyana Development Bank, as preparations continue for the operationalisation of the new financial institution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Abu Zaman has been appointed Chairman, while President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Kathy Smith will serve as Deputy Chairperson. The other members of the Board are Attorney-at-Law and Member of Parliament James Bond, Finance Secretary Sukrishnalall Pasha, Caribbean Airlines executive Dion Inniss, governance reform strategist Nalinie Singh and entrepreneur Praem Rambharak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"921\" src=\"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/072224c3-0d17-4132-96a3-ba8371537bae-1024x921.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-32247\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/072224c3-0d17-4132-96a3-ba8371537bae-1024x921.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/072224c3-0d17-4132-96a3-ba8371537bae-300x270.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/072224c3-0d17-4132-96a3-ba8371537bae-767x690.jpeg 767w, https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/072224c3-0d17-4132-96a3-ba8371537bae.jpeg 1290w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Guyana Development Bank is being established to expand access to financing for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The institution is expected to provide zero-interest, zero-collateral loans of up to $3 million, alongside business development services, technical support, mentorship and capacity-building programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Budget 2026 provided an initial capital injection of $20 billion, representing the first tranche of the bank\u2019s $40 billion authorised share capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The bank is also expected to use a dedicated mobile platform to reach entrepreneurs in urban, hinterland and riverain communities, with financing available for sectors including agriculture, agro-processing, tourism and technology services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The newly appointed Chairman, Abu Zaman, brings more than a decade of senior leadership experience in retail and small business banking and currently serves as Chief Administrative Officer of ENet, Chairman of the Small Business Council and Chairman of the Public Accountability and Oversight Committee of the Natural Resource Fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Deputy Chairperson Kathy Smith is the first woman President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Vice Chairperson of the Private Sector Commission. She also chairs the Board of Industrial Training and serves as a Board Trustee of Iwokrama River Lodge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The remaining directors bring experience spanning law, public finance, aviation, governance, entrepreneurship, youth development and small business development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The announcement follows the passage of the Guyana Development Bank Bill and the signing of the Commencement Order, clearing the way for the bank to be launched.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-post-featured-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"646\" height=\"324\" src=\"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GDB.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" style=\"object-fit:cover;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GDB.jpg 646w, https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GDB-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GDB-1024x514.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 646px) 100vw, 646px\" \/><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Government has announced the inaugural Board of Directors for the Guyana Development Bank, as preparations continue for the operationalisation of the new financial institution. Abu Zaman has been appointed&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31993,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[361,350,474],"tags":[488,1016,661,698,448,412,405,535],"class_list":["post-32243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-and-economy","category-news","category-private-sector","tag-488","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-guyana-development-bank","tag-ncn","tag-ncn-guyana","tag-ncn-news","tag-private-sector"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32243"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32249,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32243\/revisions\/32249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}