Guyana's currency stands as a total shame

Guyana’s currency stands as a total shame

Jan 30, 2025 Letters

Dear Editor

I am thankful that we are blessed by the creator Lord God of the worlds and further we are blessed by the One Guyana Government led by H.E. Dr. Mohammed Irfaan Ali. At this time, with all the measures that the President and Government have put in place to reduce the cost of living, providing grants and other support to the citizens of this country are greatly appreciated. I feel tremendous joy being a Guyanese. It must be also noted that Guyana is considered the world’s fastest growing economy per capita, as it relates to our oil and gas resources, other natural resources etc. As for our Agricultural resources, we must not forget that these bring in lots of foreign exchange and have a great impact on the economy, coupled with our food reliability. However, I do have a few areas of concern.

The Guyana currency at $209 Bank exchange rate, then at $225 – $240 at times at cambio rates is most depressing, painful, annoying and shameful. Imagine the Haitian Gourd is $130 – $1 USD. Haiti is considered as the most depressing economy in the world compared to Guyana’s fastest growing economy with a population of just about 800,000 people. The Trinidadian dollar is $7 – $1 USD. The Bahamas dollar is $1 – $1 USD. Belize and Barbados is $2 – $1 USD. Grenada, Dominica, St Vincent, St. Lucia, Antigua and St. Kitts $2.70 – $1 USD.

One of the biggest shames also is the Cuban peso. The Cuban pesos is $24- $1 USD and as we know the Cubans are flocking Guyana to make money to take care of their families in Cuba and to survive in Guyana. This bewilders the human imagination in my opinion. Suriname is $35 – $1 USD, Dominican Republic is $61 Pesos – $1 USD, Jamaica is $157- $1 USD and as for Guyana, I mentioned above which is a total embarrassment to our country as far as I am concerned.

It is also known that we have a major bugbear in Guyana where foreign businesses operating in Guyana and many cases people from Trinidad would bring their money here exchanging and converting it to US dollars. At times they seem to know that we have more US dollars available than Trinidad. Hence, Trinidadians are responsible in many ways for depleting most of Guyana US dollar resources and causing the rate for the USD to increase tremendously.

I wish to appeal to the Government of Guyana to put measures in place to ensure our money could carry the amount of value it should have. The Bahamas where $1 Bahamian dollar = $1 USD has no kind of economy compared to ours. Their main resource is the sand, sun and wind. Belize and Barbados are so minuscule, if we throw them in our Essequibo River they would disappear many times over. The same goes for Trinidad and Tobago. So what is our problem to have a respectable rate for the Guyanese dollar and what can we put in place to ensure that people cannot come from Trinidad or anywhere else and easily drain our country through the cambios.

I wish to remind the Government of Guyana of a disgraceful situation I had written about in the media, which got traction from The President, the Minister of External Affairs and the Consulate of Türkiye in Guyana all seemed to have listened and read well my concern. A Guyanese passport, as strong as it is (Power rank- 48 and Visa free -49), being accepted in the United Kingdom, Singapore, Malaysia and recognized by so many countries. Now if one decides to stop for some reason in Türkiye and wants to enter in that country to do a short tour or things of that sort, A GUYANESE CAN’T!

Türkiye has a system where certain countries are allowed to pay a fee fewer than 100 dollars to purchase a visa to enter the country. However, the shameful thing is the list of countries that are allowed includes Haiti. Yes, I repeat HAITI!!! It also includes Barbados, Grenada and St Vincent but the Guyanese passport is frowned upon. For such things, I think, even though highlighted, our Government has not done its part internationally to bring respect to Guyana and the Guyanese passport. I appeal to H.E Dr. Mohammed Irfaan Ali and his Government to look at these two above areas that need serious attention.

Yours Truly,

Hajji Dr. Roshan Khan.

(Guyana’s currency stands as a total shame)

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

cost-of-living, creator Lord God, foreign exchange, natural resources, One Guyana

Latest News

Guyana’s currency stands as a total shame

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Similar Articles

Listen to the The Glenn Lall Show

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Bartica Regatta Football Tourney to benefit from LED Lights donated...

VIEW ALL SPORTS

Features/Columnists

The magistracy is under attack

Sir. Ronald Sanders

War in Iran, Pain in the Caribbean

The GHK Lall Column

Pres. Ali – forever targeting the wrong enemy

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

> Berbice Bridge […]