GEORGETOWN, Guyana – At a public event Wednesday announcing expanded digital payment options for National Insurance Scheme (NIS) pensioners, senior leadership of Guyana’s 57-year-old social security agency highlighted five consecutive years of investment surpluses and rapid contributor growth, but offered no clear timeline for a long-awaited increase to the agency’s minimum old-age pension.
The event brought together NIS General Manager Holy Greaves, Guyana’s Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh, and members of the NIS Board of Directors to mark a key expansion of pension access: starting immediately, NIS pension payments can be received through popular local and global financial services including Mobile Money Guyana, MoneyGram, and Bill Express.
During remarks at the ceremony, NIS Board Chairman Ramesh Persaud emphasized that the agency’s financial position has strengthened dramatically over the past half-decade. “The NIS…is in a very strong position today for the last five years. The NIS has been making surpluses that we are reinvesting for the future pensioners of the organisation, and again, I think that that’s a very well-meaning accomplishment,” Persaud said.
Officials attributed the agency’s solid financial performance to broad-based economic expansion across Guyana’s traditional and emerging industries, which has driven a sharp rise in the number of active workers contributing to the social security system. Finance Minister Dr. Singh detailed that over the past five and a half years, NIS has added nearly 70,000 new contributors – a 38% jump from the 2020 baseline. The number of self-employed workers enrolled in the scheme has also doubled over the same period, reaching almost 9,000.
“These numbers reflect the dynamics in the Guyanese economy because more persons are working, more persons are employed, more employment opportunities, there’s more investment, private investment, more employment opportunities are being created, more persons are working, more entrepreneurial opportunities are being created, and more persons are entering entrepreneurial activities and becoming self-employed persons,” Dr. Singh explained.
When pressed by reporters on whether the agency’s improved financial standing would lead to an imminent increase to the NIS minimum pension, Persaud deferred all decision-making authority to the Finance Ministry, which oversees the NIS’s administrative and policy framework. “That is in the domain of the Minister of Finance to provide guidance on…The Board is independent but the structure of the NIS is that it is under the administration of the Ministry of Finance and those fiscal and policy decisions are guided by the Minister of Finance,” Persaud told Demerara Waves Online News. Dr. Singh declined to provide any comment on the question of a pension adjustment when approached.
According to official data published on the NIS website, the last adjustment to the minimum old-age pension took effect on January 1, 2025, when the monthly rate was raised from GY$35,000 to GY$43,075. Today, that minimum payment is less than half of Guyana’s current minimum public sector salary, which stands at GY$102,346 per month, highlighting the gap between pension benefits and baseline living costs for many retirees.
In an interview with reporters, President Irfaan Ali reaffirmed his administration’s broad commitment to expanding and strengthening social welfare programs across Guyana, which currently include universal cash grants for eligible adult residents, school-aged children, people living with disabilities, pensioners, and other vulnerable groups.
“The ecosystem surrounding different segments of the population, including the pensioners, is being continuously analysed so I would say as the year’s analysis continues in the new budget and subsequent budgets, we will continue to look at ways in which we can improve and expand social benefits to the population,” President Ali said.
While the government has already finalized all policy and spending measures for the 2026 national budget, President Ali did not rule out a future pension increase, but stopped short of confirming a specific timeline for the adjustment. He stressed that any change to pension rates would be implemented only once it fits within the government’s broader social support framework and is sustainable for the national economy.
“We are not only looking at this from a single barrel perspective. We are looking at this from a wholistic perspective and whilst we have concluded our policy initiative for 2026, we are continuously looking at these issues and at the appropriate time, once the economy can afford it and once it falls in the broader framework of social support, we will be looking at it,” the President told Demerara Waves Online.