Over the past five years or so, Guyana has been accelerating its digital development. We initially explored the state of the country’s telecoms/ICT sector in 2019, and thought we needed an update. With longtime friend of the Podcast, IT and Internet Governance Strategist, Lance Hinds, we discuss: how the telecoms and ICT space in Guyana has evolved; service affordability; the degree to which the public and private sectors are leveraging ICT; the current strengths and challenges in the country’s ICT/tech space; and tech-related trends and opportunities Lance is seeing in Guyana.

 

This episode is also available on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music.

Covering approximately 215,000 square kilometres (around 83,000 square miles) and with a population of just under 1 million people, the Co-operative Republic of Guyana is located between Venezuela and Suriname in the north-eastern portion of South America, and is the only English-speaking country in South America.

The country is rich in natural resources, such as gold, bauxite and oil, and the terrain ranges from the Amazon rain forest and savannahs to the local coastal plains, where much of the population resides.

We first explored the telecoms and ICT space in Guyana in 2019 with Samantha Sheoprashad. Although the country has always been resource-rich, historically, it was economically underdeveloped. However, the discovery of oil in 2015 and the petroleum sector that has since been developed have transformed its economy, with its gross domestic product (GDP) increasing exponentially from USD 4.5 billion in 2016 to over 24.5 billion in 2024, and its per capita GDP multiplying from around USD 5,800.00 in 2016 to nearly USD 30,000.00 in 2024 (Source:  World Bank Group)

This economic boom has also been fueling Guyana’s digital development and transformation. Noting that our last comprehensive discussion on the state of Guyana’s telecoms and ICT sector was nearly seven years ago, we are overdue for an update.

 

Introducing our guest

Lance Hinds

Lance Hinds is the Chief Executive Officer of the BrainStreet Group in Guyana, an IT solutions company that offers a complete range of management information and business system consulting services to governments and the private sector. He is also the Creator and Chief Technical Officer of BrainCentral, an online academic environment that helps students prepare for examinations with over 150,000 questions, generating hundreds of online quizzes and practice workbooks. He has over twenty-five years of experience in the provision of professional services for the design, development and implementation of ICT solutions.

Lance is a longstanding and active participant in the global Internet Governance space. He is the former country representative on the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Government Advisory Committee (GAC), and currently is the Chair of the Latin American and Caribbean Regional At-Large Organisation (LACRALO) at ICANN.

 

Insight into our conversation

If you have been paying attention, there are several ongoing and ambitious digital transformation initiatives in Guyana. The country has been implementing an ICT Master Plan, the first phase of which should have been completed last year (Source:  Guyana Chronicle). Although the details have not been made publicly available, the changes and improvements are almost palpable, as they are transforming citizens’ lives and how they do business.

At the same time, the question of equity across the society had to be raised, as there have been concerns about the widening socio-economic divide, although the country continues to experience an economic boom. However, as Lance explained, some of those issues are being addressed, but considerable rationalisation—to streamline processes and eliminate duplication of resources and effort—still needs to be done.

Below are questions that guided our conversation with Lance.

  1. Can you give us a quick overview of Guyana?
  2. With regard to telecommunications and ICT, how developed is it in Guyana? How robust is the competition in the market?
  3. How accessible are those services? (Are there parts of the country that are not fully served?)
  4. Are telecommunications and ICT services affordable in Guyana? How is the quality of broadband service?
  5. In your opinion, to what degree are the public and private sectors in Guyana leveraging ICT?
  6. You were instrumental in organising the ICANN Near You event in Guyana. What did you think about the event? Were there any important takeaways?
  7. As the current Chair of LACRALO, how is Guyana’s and the Caribbean region’s Internet Governance space?
  8. What do you believe are the current strengths and challenges in the ICT/tech space in Guyana?
  9. What are some of the ICT/tech-related trends and opportunities that you see in Guyana?

 

We would love to hear your thoughts!

Do leave us a comment either here beneath this article, or on our Facebook or LinkedIn pages, or via Twitter, @ICTPulse.

Also, if you or a member of your network is interested in joining us for an episode, do get in touch.

Let’s make it happen!

 

Select links

Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise, might be useful

 

 

Images credit:  L Hinds;  Wikimedia Commons;  fanjianhua (Freepik);   Project Trust (flickr)

Music credit: The Last Word (Oui Ma Chérie), by Andy Narrell

Podcast editing support: Mayra Bonilla Lopez