The Outstretched Hand: Guyana’s Diaspora Bond Is a Patriotism Trap

When oil billions, carbon windfalls, and mining revenues aren’t enough
— the government comes for your savings

Opinion | The 592 Guardian

There is a particular kind of audacity reserved for those who collect a fortune, spend it without accounting to anyone, and then return to the people they already squeezed —this time with a glossy prospectus and a flag.
That is, in essence, what President Irfaan Ali’s proposed diaspora bond represents.

Not vision. Not partnership. Not an invitation to shared prosperity.
A masterclass in salesmanship — and a financial trap dressed in national colors.

The Sales Pitch
“Here is your opportunity to help in the development of your country.”

Read that sentence again. Absorb its breathtaking construction. In one line, the administration reframes the absence of fiscal discipline as a test of civic virtue. It converts an accountability failure into an investment opportunity. And it enlists the very people who were never given a fair share of Guyana’s wealth to now fund the infrastructure that
oil revenues, carbon credit windfalls, and mining royalties were supposed to build.

It is a magnificent piece of emotional engineering. And Guyanese abroad — who have already given enormously — would be wise to see it for exactly what it is.

What the Government Is Already Collecting
Before a single diaspora dollar is mobilized, every overseas Guyanese deserves a full accounting of what this government is already earning on their behalf.

Petroleum revenues are staggering. In 2024 alone, Guyana’s offshore Stabroek Block— operated by ExxonMobil alongside Hess and CNOOC — generated an estimated US$17.9 billion in total production value. Deposits into the Natural Resource Fund for that year amounted to US$2.6 billion, drawn from profit oil payments across the Liza
Destiny, Liza Unity, and Prosperity FPSOs. By September 2025, the NRF balance had grown to US$3.6 billion. Between September 2024 and September 2025 alone, oil revenue inflows totaled US$2.39 billion — with outflows of US$2.14 billion already withdrawn and spent.
That is billions of dollars in oil money — already collected, already disbursed — with no comprehensive public ledger of where it went, what it built, or who benefited.

Carbon credit revenues add another layer to this extraordinary windfall. Under the landmark agreement with Hess Corporation as part of the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030, Guyana committed to selling 750 million carbon credits between 2022 and 2032 for a minimum of US$750 million — with upside sharing provisions if
prices rise. By January 2024, US$187.5 million had already been received from this first commercial sale. In 2023, revenues reached US$150 million. In 2024, they were US$87.5 million, and by late 2025, President Ali himself announced that total carbon credit revenues for 2025 would approach US$200 million — bringing the three-year total
under the revised LCDS 2030 to approximately US$400 million. Looking further out, Vice President Jagdeo has projected this sector could eventually generate US$2 billion for Guyana, and potentially US$4 to 5 billion at full scale.

That is hundreds of millions in carbon dollars — earned by selling the world access to Guyana’s standing forests — forests that belong to all Guyanese, not merely those connected to the administration’s inner circle.

And still, the government needs your money.

The question that demands an answer is not rhetorical. It is foundational: What, precisely, is all of this revenue financing — if not the public infrastructure the diaspora bond now proposes to build?

The Accountability Deficit

The opposition has raised alarm bells that should disturb every prospective investor.
Parliamentarian Dr. Terrence Campbell has flagged that withdrawals from the Natural
Resource Fund have amounted to approximately US$2.61 billion over three years —
US$607 million in 2022, over US$1 billion in 2023 alone — and has initiated legal
proceedings challenging the transparency of those withdrawals.

Between 2022 and late 2025, billions in oil and carbon revenue have flowed into
government accounts. Meanwhile:

•Infrastructure projects continue to be plagued by chronic delays and cost overruns.

•Procurement processes remain opaque, with contracts awarded under conditions
that resist independent scrutiny.

•Tax concessions, state subsidies, and government-backed financing
disproportionately benefit foreign and politically connected commercial interests.

•The IMF, in its 2025 country report on Guyana, noted that despite governance
improvements, the fiscal deficit remained at 7.3% of GDP in 2024 and was projected to stay near 4.9% of GDP in 2025 — even amid unprecedented resource revenues.

A government running structural deficits while sitting on billions in oil and carbon wealth
does not have a revenue problem. It has a discipline problem.
And it is asking you to paper over that problem with your savings.

Squandermania — A Pattern, Not an Accident

This is not the first time that extraordinary resource wealth has been captured and
poorly managed in this region. The term squandermania — coined to describe oil-rich
nations that fritter away generational wealth on patronage, vanity projects, and
bureaucratic bloat — was not invented for Guyana, but it applies with uncomfortable
precision.

Consider what is in play simultaneously:

•Billions in oil profit oil payments, with the government’s own withdrawal formula now
under legal challenge.

•Nearly US$400 million in carbon credit sales over three years, with hundreds of
millions more projected, under a deal that monetizes Guyana’s forests — a national
patrimony — at rates critics argue are below their true value.

•Record budget allocations, including GY$100.3 billion for the security sector alone in
2026.

•A fiscal deficit that persists regardless of inflows.

Now add a diaspora bond.

If the NRF cannot finance roads, hospitals, energy grids, and digital infrastructure —
what has US$2.6 billion in withdrawals been spent on? If carbon credit revenues
approaching half a billion dollars cannot address public infrastructure gaps — who
exactly is benefiting from those funds?

These are not opposition talking points. They are arithmetic.

The Diaspora Has Already Paid

For decades — through economic collapse, political persecution, and the long years of
underdevelopment that drove hundreds of thousands abroad — the Guyanese diaspora
kept this nation alive. Remittances stabilized foreign exchange. They funded surgeries,
school fees, and funeral costs. They built houses and buried parents. They kept entire
villages economically viable when the state had abdicated its responsibilities.

That generation of sacrifice has never been formally acknowledged by this government.
There has been no serious reparative policy, no preferential investment framework, no
genuine institutional effort to bring diaspora capital home on fair terms — not until now,
when it is convenient.

President Ali, speaking at Rice University’s Baker Institute in May 2026, framed it
plainly: “How do we unlock their financing? How do we create opportunities for their
investments?”

Note the architecture of that sentence. The diaspora is not a constituency to serve. It is
a financing pool to unlock.

What a Legitimate Instrument Would Look Like

A diaspora bond is not inherently objectionable. Israel’s State of Israel Bonds and India’s
various NRI bond issuances have raised billions legitimately — but they rested on a
foundation that Guyana’s current administration has not established:

Full structural transparency. What specific projects will this bond finance? What are
the precise terms — interest rate, tenor, currency of repayment, redemption
mechanism? What legal protections exist for overseas investors if the government
defaults or changes the terms?

Independent oversight. Who audits the use of proceeds? Is there a third-party
mechanism — international or domestic — with genuine authority and public reporting
obligations?

Risk disclosure. What is the sovereign credit risk profile? What recourse exists? What
happens to these bonds under a change of government?
A prior accounting. Before asking for new money, account for the billions already
collected. A government that cannot explain where US$2.6 billion in NRF withdrawals
went has no credible standing to solicit fresh investment.

Parliamentary mandate. Has this bond been debated, structured, and authorized
through the National Assembly? Or is it another initiative launched by executive
declaration, bypassing the legislature that represents all Guyanese?

None of these conditions appear to have been met. What has been offered instead is a
sentiment — love of country — dressed up as a financial product.

The Bottom Line

This is not patriotism. It is opportunism wearing a flag pin.
The Guyanese diaspora is not a venture capital fund for a government that cannot
account for its existing revenues. They are not obligated to subsidize infrastructure that
oil money, carbon credits, and mining royalties should already be building. They are not
responsible for covering a fiscal deficit created by a combination of structural
mismanagement, patronage spending, and procurement irregularities.

Every Guyanese abroad who is tempted by this offer should ask one simple question
before signing anything: If Guyana cannot afford to build its own roads and hospitals on
petroleum revenues of US$2.6 billion a year, carbon credit revenues approaching
US$200 million a year, and a Natural Resource Fund balance of US$3.6 billion — then
where, exactly, has the money gone?

Until that question is answered — fully, publicly, and verifiably — the only responsible
position is caution.

Due diligence is not disloyalty. Demanding accountability is not a betrayal of Guyana.

It is the highest form of love for it.

The 592 Guardian holds no brief for any political party. We hold a brief for the Guyanese people–at home and abroad