Even as the Government of Guyana continues to tag the Small Business Bureau as the principal state-run agency for effectively implementing the provisions of the Small Business Act, the Ministry of Business believes that there are “several institutional constraints and challenges” that preclude the state-run agency from effectively exercising that mandate.
Created under the 2004 Small Business Act, the Bureau is regarded as a key institution in the effective implementation of the first government-backed guarantee programme and subsidized interest payment facility targeting sector-specific small and medium-scale enterprises in areas such as craft and agro-processing. However, in its recently published 2016-2020 Strategic Plan the Ministry of Business cited a number of weaknesses currently plaguing the Bureau which it says makes the effective execution of its tasks challenging.