Jagdeo touts digital banking to bridge financial gap in Indigenous communities

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has announced a major government initiative to ease banking challenges in Indigenous communities by building a more accessible digital banking system.

Speaking at this year’s National Toshaos Council (NTC) Conference, Jagdeo said the goal is to expand internet banking services and create convenient access points across the country. This move, he noted, is part of a broader effort to bring financial services closer to remote and underserved communities.

“We are working on the digital society, and we are hoping to have more internet banking and many points where people can either make deposits or retrieve money that are not linked to the banking system directly.

“…because these are people who provide the service by moving money across the system for a fee and I believe that we can be more successful by licensing those individuals than getting the banks in all of the villages or even in the sub districts,” Jagdeo told the Indigenous leaders.

Jagdeo was responding to a request by the Toshao of Santa Rosa Village in Region One, Eleini La Rose about financial and banking challenges faced by Indigenous communities.

La Rose revealed that government employees in Santa Rosa have to travel to Anna Regina on the Essequibo Coast to uplift their salaries.

The Vice President acknowledged these challenges and also referenced a previous instance during the distribution of the $100,000 cash grant, where banks traveled with government officials to cash cheques.

“In Region One we still have like a few thousand individuals who have not being able to change their cheques,” Jagdeo revealed.

However, he further explained that since the government does not own any banks, it must encourage commercial banks to expand services.

The challenge with expanding for the banks is the level of business in remote areas is not sufficient to establish permanent branches.

“They claim to establish a bank, they need a minimum amount of businesses and they don’t have that businesses to establish a full-fledged bank, so we will have to find another mechanism,” the Vice President said.

Jagdeo assured the Indigenous leaders that the government is paying close attention to this challenge and will continue to work on finding solutions to improve financial access in Indigenous and remote communities.