No cash grant promise broken, more coming but “you have to earn too” – Jagdeo

Last Updated on Thursday, 18 December 2025, 23:50 by Writer

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday said there was no promise to pay a cash grant before Christmas and the reality is that there is no money allocated in the treasury for such a payout which would take months.

“In this manifesto here, it didn’t say ‘cash grant before Christmas’,” said Mr Jagdeo as he held up a copy of his People’s Progressive Party Civic’s (PPPC) 2025 election manifesto.

In apparent reaction to claims of broken promises by the opposition We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Mr Jagdeo recalled Prime Minister Mark Phillips saying that the cash grant would be paid next year and then President Irfaan Ali enjoining that to hint at a payout this year if they behaved themselves.

“Jocularly, the President said if you’re good people…and this is what they are building their campaign on,” Mr Jagdeo, also the PPPC General Secretary said.

He said it was almost impossible to transfer the cash before Christmas, noting that it took his government five months to implement the programme earlier this year and even then many persons “tried to rip off the system”.

“We didn’t even have a budgetary provision for it. You have to go to parliament to get the budgetary provision but we made it clear. The President said ‘you getting it and in the future you will get several more’. We are not operating for Christmas alone for 2025. We’re in office till 2031,” he said.

Asked to respond to concerns by sections of the public that the GY$100,000, which would be paid after the 2026 national budget is approved early next year, is insufficient, he said cash grants are not the only welfare benefits that government was providing Guyanese.

He said other social programmes that have been developed over the last three months include soft loans or grants for small business development through the planned US$200 million initially capitalised development bank, financial support for housing programmes on the coastland and hinterland areas, healthier towns, villages and public spaces.

He said next year’s cash transfer is projected to cost more than GY$60 billion, as was the first one paid in 2025.

Mr Jagdeo also cautioned Guyanese against becoming cash grant-dependent. “You don’t manage for cash grant alone and if we only allow that mindset, some people just waiting for that, for everything, cash grant. You got to earn too. Cash grants should help supplement what you have,” he said.

The Vice President detailed that the government would be spending more than GY$800 billion on improved housing for hundreds of thousands of families in the next five years, more monies for children, pensioners, public assistance recipients and workers.