Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh, has indicated that as the Government prepares to roll out the $100,000 cash grant, it prefers for the payment to be made directly to bank accounts.

The programme, which is expected to commence next week, will see some 50,000 public servants receiving the grant in the initial phase, as their bank account information is already known to the Government.

“So, if you have a bank account we must be able to pay you this cash grant directly into your bank account, we want to make it easier for you, we don’t want to have you join the line anywhere, we don’t want you to go somewhere to register and then go somewhere else to collect your check and somewhere else to deposit your check. We have learnt from the experiences of the last cash grant, there were sound reasons why we used the modalities that we use on the last occasion and it worked very well and the overwhelming majority of persons got their cash grant smoothly,” the Finance Minister said.

The Finance Minister said the bank account preference also forms part of the Government’s digital push for every Guyanese to have a bank account, so that it will be easier to conduct transactions digitally.

Further, he said while the first round of cash grant was successfully executed, the Government believes that direct deposit remains an easier avenue.

“This time around we will be prioritizing payments directly into bank accounts because we want to make it as seamless and smooth and as efficient and as easy as possible, and so first cohort of eligible beneficiary who will received their cash grants will be those central government employees who are currently paid their salaries directly into their bank accounts,” the Finance Minister said.

He said next week the Government will be launching an online portal for persons to self-register for the grant, and in that app, persons are also required to include their banking details. Once verifications are done, the grant will be paid to their accounts.

“We are going further than this, we want to encourage as many people as possible to receive their cash grant using the same modality. President Ali has said it since last year that he was encouraging all Guyanese to open a bank account, we did not wait until today to say, since last year the President said it”, Singh said.

The Finance Minister reminded that many commercial banks have simplified the requirements for opening a bank account.

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