SOME eight persons in the field of agriculture and information technology were granted an opportunity to enhance their trade with grants amounting to US$180,000, which were issued through the Guyana Innovation Prize and Economic Development Accelerator programmes that fall under the Innovate Guyana initiative.

Innovate Guyana, which supports innovation in science, technology and agriculture, is an initiative of the Guyana Economic Development Trust, and through its sub-programme, the Guyana Innovation Prize, which is funded by the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT), three persons received grants of US$10,000 each.

Those persons who benefitted from the programme which started in July 2021, were Jubilante Cutting of Guyana Animation Network (GAN) and GAN Studios; Vickacy Williams of Aurora Technologies, who creates decorative construction tiles made from plastic waste; and founder of EcoCarb GY, Lisa Dublin, who uses activated carbon to clean drinking water made from coconut waste.

Additionally, five agro-processors were awarded through the Economic Development Accelerator programme funded by USAID.
This programme was developed to enhance commercially successful manufactured agricultural products by supporting their growth through exports saw

Some 43 products were submitted for this programme which began in September 2021. Of the 43, 15 agro-processors were shortlisted as finalists for the programme.
Following a series of training, technical assistance, and one-on-one coaching, five persons were selected to be beneficiaries of US$30,000 each.

Those persons were Tasmin Pellew of Taz Foods; Grace Parris of Asdel Foods; Osric Hacker of Blue Ribbon Manufacturing; Dianna Plowell of Pleasurable Flavors and Dwayne Wade of Country Style Foods.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Economic Development Trust, Oslene Carrington, who lives abroad, said that the initiative, which those persons benefit from, was created by her after she saw a niche for innovation in Guyana.

“I come back often and I come across people with fantastic ideas who, they do have some outlets but we felt there was an opportunity for a very specific one,” she said.
She added that the outlet looks like what she would have seen in the United States, but there was room for innovation.

“So, we started there with the Guyana Innovation prize in 2017 and 2018, we got some additional support from the US embassy in 2020. This programme, before garnering the support of other entities, was initially self-funded by me and members of the diaspora and so we are really excited to be able to contribute back to our fellow Guyanese in that way,” Carrington said.

Damian Blackburn, CEO of GTT, reaffirmed the company’s support towards innovation in Guyana.
He said: “Specific to growth and development in a country is innovation – a key customer promise of GTT to innovate for all in our country.

“As a company, we recognise that innovation goes beyond technology and it includes skin care, agriculture, solid waste management and pharmaceuticals. I’d like to congratulate GEDT for this initiative and the innovators for these really great concepts. I look forward to supporting what’s to come for Guyana.”