Dolla to exit Guyana

Dolla Guyana Inc will cease operations next year, a decision its Jamaican parent made in February.

“The board declared its intention to wind down the operations of Dolla Guyana Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dolla Financial,” the company said in its 2023 earnings report released on Monday. “The decision is due to the current geopolitical uncertainty and the reallocation of resources to Jamaica where returns exceeded those in Guyana,” it said.

The regional subsidiary was the sole underperforming segment for Dolla Financial Services Limited last year. Dolla Guyana’s contribution fell from $28 million to $5 million, whereas the group’s nascent subsidiary Ultra Financier accounted for $116.5 million, up from $9.6 million at start-up, and Dolla Jamaica grew its segment from $243 million to $297.5 million.

Dolla Financial first entered the Guyana market in 2021, but two years later then CEO Kadeen Mairs said the company was still trying to understand the market. Mairs, who founded Dolla, and remains a large shareholder, exited the company in July of 2023.

He made that the disclosure while advising shareholders that plans for a second branch in Berbice had been scuttled.

“Guyana is a new market. We are still learning the market, and we don’t want to get too aggressive in a market that we are new to. That’s the same sort of temperament that we will have as we look to expand into other Caribbean markets,” Mairs said at the company’s annual general meeting in June 2023.

Now the operation there is to wound down by March 2025, by which time the company expects that it would have collected final payments on outstanding customer loans.

Dolla Financial’s group-wide loan portfolio was estimated at $2.5 billion at year, up 42 per cent. Its secured loans were four-fifths of the portfolio.

business@gleanerjm.com