In a landmark gathering at the Four Points by Sheraton on Heroes Highway, Caribbean credit union officials launched their premier Caribbean Development Education (CaribDe) training program in Guyana for the first time, delivering a powerful appeal for legislative modernization. The event spotlighted Guyana’s outdated 1948 Cooperative Societies Act as a regional anomaly requiring immediate reform.
CaribDe Programme Director Melvin Edwards emphasized the critical inadequacies of the nearly 80-year-old legislation, noting its complete absence of provisions addressing contemporary financial challenges. “An almost 80-year-old piece of legislation cannot be relevant to the present day,” Edwards stated, highlighting the act’s failure to incorporate modern standards against money laundering, terrorism financing, proliferation risks, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and credit union prudential management protocols.
Edwards formally urged Labour Minister Keoma Griffith to collaborate with local and regional credit union movements to overhaul Guyana’s cooperative framework, pointing out that most Caribbean nations have already updated their legislation. The Caribbean credit union sector represents a substantial economic force, serving 2.8 million members across the region with accumulated assets of US$3.5 billion.
In response, Minister Griffith revealed that Guyana has been receiving technical assistance from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to conduct an extensive review of the Cooperative Societies Act. The objectives include strengthening legal provisions, improving governance structures, and ensuring greater accountability. Griffith confirmed that Guyana is examining Jamaica’s cooperatives legislation among other models to inform their modernization efforts.
The minister concurrently acknowledged concerning governance issues within segments of Guyana’s cooperative sector, noting that some societies “have operated in ways that have undermined public confidence and weakened the effectiveness of the movement.”
The event also addressed internal divisions within Guyana’s credit union leadership. Edwards made a direct public appeal to Secretary of the Guyana Cooperative Credit Union League Colin Beaton and Chairman of Guyana Public Service Cooperative Credit Union Ltd Trevor Benn to resolve their differences before the Caribbean Confederation of Credit Unions’ 2026 Annual International Convention in Barbados this June. Both leaders indicated ongoing efforts to resolve what Beaton termed “little teething issues,” with Benn emphasizing his organization’s commitment to improvement and membership growth.