Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo today confirmed that Guyanese living abroad will also be able to benefit from the Government’s recently announced $100,000 cash grant for citizens.

During his weekly press conference, the Vice President noted that the Government does not want to discriminate based on residency of persons, and as a result, he said once a person can prove that they are Guyanese, that person will be eligible for the grant.

“There is no residency requirement for the receipt of the cash grant. So that makes Guyanese living abroad, who have and ID card or a passport also eligible for the cash grant. However, they have to collect the same in Guyana after going through a registration process. The grant will not be paid overseas and we have no intention going to New York, or Toronto to register people they would have to be in Guyana to be registered,” Jagdeo said today.

Further, the Vice President noted that the Government is currently developing an app which is in the testing stage to assist with the distribution of the grant.

He said when the app comes on board, there will be compulsory fields that citizens will be required to fill out before cheques are processed.

“We are building a system that would allow us to process the cheques seamlessly and most of the payments will be done in checks except for the hinterland where we would have to have a carefully scrutinized system with the involvement of the auditor general’s office throughout the whole process not just in the hinterland but on the coast verifying all of the payments,” the Vice President said.

Jagdeo said the Government is trying to have a tight system to minimize corruption.

He said it will take about five months to complete the initiative, adding that the Government is in no rush to distribute the grant or to find itself facing corruption claims.

“We will take enough time to build a robust system that it could be done in a manner that is open and transparent and every eligible will receive it and that is what we are working on and the entire activity will take a five months period to be completed

President Irfaan Ali last week announced a revision to his previously announced cash grant incentive, saying that instead of the one-off $200,000 per household payment, each adult Guyanese citizen 18 years and older as at the 1st January 2024 will receive a one-off cash grant of $100,000.

To be eligible, recipients will have to show proof of Guyanese citizenship by way of national identification card or Guyana passport. The Former Finance Minister Winston Jordan had called for the grant to target resident Guyanese, since its intention is to assist with the cost of living being faced by citizens in Guyana.

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