Guyanese agro-processors can get $1M, training to push their businesses

At least 40 Guyanese agro-processors can access much-needed business training and $1 million in interest-free financing to expand their businesses all across Guyana, through the Economic Development Accelerator programme.

This programme is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and offered through the Guyana Economic Development Trust.

The first round of the programme was completed this year with 30 participants benefitting from the training. A final five got US $30,000 (or GY $6.2 million) each to expand their businesses for the export market.

In the months ahead, however, the programme’s focus will shifted towards enabling local agro-processors to meet the demands of the local market.

“You must become, more or less, a household name,” the programme’s manager Shaundell Brotherson told the News Room on Thursday.

The aim is to have between 40 to 50 local agro-processors benefit from year-long business training. At the end of the training, they will each be able to access US$5,000 or GY$1 million in interest-free financing.

With this focus, Brotherson believes that agro-processors and small business owners would be able to supply refined products to shops and supermarkets all across the country.

“The reason for focusing on Guyana this year is that even though those products are scaling internationally, we found that many people in Guyana were not aware of these products.

“We wanna make sure that our agro-processors have their products in the supermarkets in Guyana,” Brotherson underscored.

Applications for this programme are open until August 31, 2022. Any registered, profitable Guyanese agro-processing business that that been operating for at least one year can join.