Even a cursory glance at what is happening in Guyana today could cause Jamaica to want to redouble its long-running efforts to find oil in commercial quantities, which would be a satisfactory realisation of a 74-year dream.

This month, the Mohamed Irfaan Ali Government in Guyana ramped up its already spectacular programme of spreading its new-found oil wealth by announcing it would provide a one-off cash grant of $100,000 to every citizen 18 years and over. That replaces the previous $200,000 to each household.

That is only the latest in a series of mouth-watering measures aimed at boosting disposable income for Guyanese. The Administration has already removed more than 200 taxes and fees, including value added tax (VAT) on water, electricity, and essential food items.

Additionally, there has been the removal of excise tax on fuel, saving consumers more than $90 billion annually, raising the low-income mortgage loan ceiling, and eliminating taxes on Internet services for residential and individual use.

Previously, the Government allocated $5 billion towards cost-of-living relief, providing public servants, teachers, members of the disciplined services, and staff of semi-autonomous agencies and public enterprises with a one-off $25,000 cash grant.

This month also, the Administration moved to adopt free education policies, starting with the abolishing of fees to all technical, vocational government institutions, as well as the University of Guyana (UG) in 2025. As a companion measure, $8 billion will be written off under the Government’s student loan write-off programme.

Of course, Guyana has been able to do all this out of the revenue from the huge amounts of oil and gas — estimated reserves of 11-billion barrels — found under its coastal waters, which is comparable to countries such as Norway, Brazil, and Algeria.

About 20 times the size of Jamaica, Guyana currently boasts the fastest-growing economy in the world, with a 62 per cent growth in gross domestic product (GDP) last year to be shared among a small population of 800,000, resulting in a per capita income of $11,000, which the International Monetary Fund projects to be $60,000 soon.

Jamaica is keeping its fingers crossed that its almost eight decades-long search for oil on and offshore will bear fruit. Drilling partner United Oil and Gas has stated its commitment to improving its understanding of the resource potential within the Walton-Morant area located to the south of Jamaica for which the company holds a licence.

United Oil executives project that the area — 22,400 square kilometres or the equivalent of 3.5 million football pitches — could generate more than 2.4 billion barrels of oil, with a potential value “double the island’s gross domestic product”.

The Walton-Morant Licence, they say, is comparable to Starbroek in Guyana.

Successive Jamaican governments have to be commended for staying with the oil exploration projects through the ups and downs, even when a fair number of large companies have come with great plans but soon after packed up their equipment and departed.

The Guyanese Government is also to be commended for managing its new revenues in a way as to allow the ordinary people to reap the immediate benefits, as against funnelling the funds to the already wealthy.