GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — Guyana says it will, within the next six months, roll out a national payment platform and expand access to digital wallets, allowing users to make payments using their mobile devices and reducing reliance on cash.

“In the next six months, I have advised the governor of the central bank that…a national payment platform must be fully operational and we must have access to the digital wallets at a national level and at a national scale,” President Irfaan Ali said at the ceremonial opening of a new branch of Demerara Bank Limited at Beterverwagting, along the East Coast of Demerara, on Monday

He said the move forms part of a broader strategy to modernise Guyana’s financial sector and expand access to cashless transactions.

And Ali said the next phase will focus on building the supporting infrastructure to enable seamless transactions nationwide. He said this includes equipping supermarkets, retail outlets, and other businesses with technology that can process contactless payments, allowing customers to pay by simply tapping or swiping their phones.

“That is where we are going and that is where the country is heading,” said President Ali, with Demerara Bank expected to launch its own digital wallets for its customers in the next four to six weeks.

Ali said making banking services more accessible to citizens remains central to Guyana’s development agenda, noting that Demerara Bank has taken a significant step in that direction.

He said the opening of the new branch “represents a continued expansion of traditional banking services but it also reminds us that the future lies in greater inclusion and digital transformation”.

He said residents along the East Coast corridor will no longer need to travel to Georgetown to access basic banking services, and that they can also open accounts, conduct transactions, and access credit within their own community.

President Ali said that over the past nine months the bank processed 450,000 new accounts electronically, and during that same period more than GUY$50 billion (One Guyana dollar=US$0.004 cents) in transactions were conducted electronically.

This, he said, is a “remarkable” accomplishment and is indicative of the bank’s responsiveness to customers’ needs.

“What we see here today is not only success for Demerara Bank, but success for our country,” Ali said, adding that expansion in the financial sector reflects deliberate government policies aimed at creating a favourable climate for economic growth.

Private sector credit has grown by over 120 per cent in the last five years, mainly due to an increase in mortgage lending, and Ali said mortgage financing rose from GUY$90.6 billion in 2020 to GUY$185.4 billion last year, closely linked to a surge in homeownership.

“This is about families building wealth. It means more Guyanese are investing in their future, and development is taking place not only in statistics but in towns, villages and households across the country,” Ali said, noting that the average age for homeownership in Guyana is now among the lowest in the Caribbean, reflecting broader access to financing.

But Ali said despite the rapid growth, the banking system remains highly liquid.

Demerara Bank Chairman Komal Samaroo told the ceremony that assets have grown from under GUY$10 billion to approximately GUY$242 billion.