Morning, Guyana. Saturday, April 18. The workweek is technically over but traffic doesn’t know that. Here’s what happened while you were sleeping in — or, more realistically, while somebody’s car alarm was going off at 5:47 AM for the third consecutive morning.
1. Nandlall Wants to Strengthen De Noise and Littering Laws
Attorney General Anil Nandlall announced this week that the government will review and amend the Summary Jurisdiction Offences Act to include stronger penalties for littering and noise nuisance, including prison time for repeat offenders and community service.
Let me pause to appreciate this. Prison. For littering. Not just for the man who flings mango skins in the canal, but — presumably — also for the fellow who runs the 40-decibel subwoofer in his Toyota Premio at 2 AM in a residential area. Now: whether this law will actually be enforced, or will sit on the books the way the existing framework has sat on the books, is a different question.
The AG said enforcement will be “made easier.” We will see. The current enforcement mechanism is a police officer shrugging and saying “I can’t stop every car.” The new enforcement mechanism has not been explained. We shall watch with interest.
2. Scotiabank Named Caribbean’s and Guyana’s Best Bank 2026
Global Finance magazine has named Scotiabank the best bank in both Guyana and the wider Caribbean for 2026. The award is based on criteria including asset quality, customer service, product innovation, and regional leadership.
Scotiabank has been quietly running the retail banking sector in Guyana since before most of our readers had current accounts. The award is not surprising. What is mildly surprising is that the award was given by Global Finance and not by Scotiabank’s own in-house marketing department, which typically produces two such awards per quarter.
Congratulations to Scotiabank. Now please fix the Vreed-en-Hoop branch queue.
3. Two Young Men Arrested in Region 6 With Illegal Firearms
Police in Regional Division #6 have detained two young men following the discovery of illegal firearms and ammunition during an operation. The detainees have not been named. The weapons have not been described. The circumstances have not been disclosed.
This is, by our count, the fourth firearm seizure in Berbice this month. The police will describe this as a successful pattern of interdiction. The opposition will describe this as evidence of a gun flow that continues unabated. Both are correct. Both can be correct simultaneously.
We salute the officers who made the arrest. We note that arrests are downstream of the actual question, which is: where are all these firearms coming from, and who is moving them across our borders in 2026 at a rate that our customs and coast guard cannot apparently match?
4. CANU Bails Repeat Offender at Wales Magistrate’s Court
A man described by the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit as a repeat offender was granted bail on Friday at the Wales Magistrate’s Court. The details of the charge, the bail amount, and the sureties are in the court record. The detail that is not in the court record is: how does a repeat CANU target end up back in front of a magistrate getting bail again?
The Director of Public Prosecutions will say that the bail process is governed by law. The law is governed by discretion. The discretion is governed by magistrates. And the magistrates, on occasion, appear to be reading from a different script than the prosecutors. This is not a scandal. It is the ordinary functioning of a system that is not working.
5. Readymix National Rapid Chess Championship Starts Today
The 2026 National Rapid Chess Championship begins this afternoon in the Atlantic Room of the Pegasus Suites. Nine rounds, Swiss format, 15 minutes plus a 5-second increment per player per move. FIDE Master Anthony Drayton is defending his title against a field that includes Candidate Masters Sachin Pitamber and Taffin Khan, as well as the rising junior players Joshua Gopaul and Kyle Couchman.
On the women’s side, Woman Candidate Master Jessica Callender is among the top seeds, alongside National Under-16 and Under-14 Girls Champion Kataleya Sam.
If you have never watched rapid chess live, today is a reasonable introduction. The top twelve boards will be live-streamed. The Pegasus Atlantic Room has air conditioning that works, which is no small thing in Guyana in April, and the buffet lunch at the Pegasus is worth the walk-in spectator ticket by itself.
Go. Watch. Learn some openings. It is a more rewarding Saturday than arguing with the relatives about the cost of living.
6. Guyana’s Carbon Market Experience Goes Global
A new report is profiling Guyana’s carbon market — specifically the ART/TREES credits sold to Hess for preservation of our standing forest — as a case study for the Global South on how natural capital can fund national development. The report argues that Guyana’s model (retain sovereignty, quantify the asset, sell the credit at a verified price) is a template that other rainforest nations can replicate.
The report is broadly favorable. It is also written by institutions that have an interest in the carbon market continuing to grow. We note this not to discount the argument — the argument is sound — but to remind readers that not every piece of international coverage of Guyana is neutral journalism. Some of it is, essentially, long-form marketing. Read accordingly.
7. Advanced Eye Care Arrives With Optique Eye Hospital
A new specialist eye hospital — Optique — has opened in Georgetown, offering advanced eye care services that previously required patients to travel to Trinidad, Barbados, or Miami. The hospital offers cataract, retinal, and corneal procedures along with specialized diagnostic imaging.
This is genuinely good news. The number of Guyanese who have flown to Trinidad for eye surgery over the last decade is not small. A domestic facility that reduces the travel-plus-surgery cost by 40 percent or more is a real improvement to quality of life for anyone who has ever tried to read their phone and realized the phone is now too close to read.
Appointment availability, pricing, and insurance coverage are the three questions we do not yet have answers to. We will circle back.
8. Region 1 Gets Seven Boats for Medical Outreach
Seven new boats have been delivered to Region 1 for use in medical outreach to riverine communities. The boats will allow health workers to reach settlements that were previously accessible only by multi-day river travel or by chartered aircraft.
This is the kind of practical infrastructure delivery that does not generate headlines but does change the numbers on the ground. Infant mortality, vaccination rates, diabetes screening, antenatal care — all of these metrics are functions of access. Seven boats is a lot of access.
Good. More of this, fewer press conferences.
9. GPL-Region 5 Farmers Discuss Compensation for Transmission Lines
Guyana Power and Light is holding negotiations with Region 5 farmers over compensation for transmission lines that will pass through farmland as part of the expanded grid project. Farmers are concerned about permanent land-use restrictions under the transmission corridors. GPL is proposing a one-time payment.
The one-time payment is almost always the wrong framework for farmland taken out of productive use. It puts the multi-generational value of the land into a single lump sum that will be spent within 18 months and leave the family with no land and no income. The correct framework is a recurring easement payment indexed to productivity loss. We hope the farmers know to push for this. We suspect some of them will be offered the lump sum and will accept it because they need the money now.
10. Lines in Guyana — Lines Everywhere
The commentary in Kaieteur this weekend noting that every new development in Guyana — every service, every benefit, every event — comes with a line, is both accurate and a little bit sad. There was a line at the Guyoil gas stations after the Iran war announcement. There was a line at the Be! Pay customer service office after the app shut down. There was a line at the Chinese acrobatic ticket counter because the show is free and there are only so many seats.
Lines mean people are being served. Lines also mean infrastructure is running at capacity. In a country that is growing as fast as we are, the lines are, paradoxically, a sign of progress. They are also a sign that we need to think harder about service capacity.
That’s the Brief. Go to the chess. Get your eyes checked. Do not, under any circumstances, run your subwoofer at 2 AM in a residential area, because Nandlall may soon come for you.
— The Guyana Daily Brief