Women-led enterprises across Guyana are being urged to formalise their operations, meet statutory requirements and overhaul their internal systems so they can compete for contracts created by the country's rapid economic growth. The message came from Josephine Tapp-Rutherford, President of the Women's Chamber of Commerce and Industry Guyana (WCCIG), who drew a line between being busy and being ready. A business can trade every day, she said, and still lack the capacity to compete for work from large institutions.

Ms Tapp-Rutherford called on entrepreneurs to learn how procurement frameworks operate, which are often complex. That means reading buyer specifications closely and building relationships with corporate customers before a tender is issued. A supplier that cannot show it understands what a buyer is asking for tends to be passed over, whatever the quality of its product.

Formal credentials were identified as the basis of institutional credibility. Businesses should be registered and incorporated, keep up with their tax obligations and submit to financial audit controls. They should also follow anti-money laundering (AML) protocols. Large buyers, particularly those with international owners or lenders, need to satisfy their own compliance teams, and a supplier with gaps in its paperwork creates a problem for them.

She also warned against taking on too much. Owners should compare a contract's demands with what the business can actually deliver before they bid. A company that wins work it cannot complete loses capital and labour, and its owner loses the focus needed to run the rest of the business. Declining a poorly matched tender can be the better commercial decision.

The advice forms part of a training series run jointly by the WCCIG and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Sessions are held at the Pegasus Exhibition Centre in Kingston, Georgetown, on 27 October, 30 October, 3 November and 6 November. Thirty-nine female founders are taking part. They receive instruction in corporate governance and in navigating statutory requirements, along with leadership training and commercial networking.

The initiative is set against the expansion of Guyana's economy, which has been driven by the natural resources sector. That growth has created strong demand for local content and for domestic partners in supply chains. Contracts are available, but the businesses that win them must meet standards set by large operators. For small firms, the cost of reaching those standards is real, and many owners have little spare time to spend on paperwork while keeping a business running.

Katy Thompson, the UNDP Resident Representative, linked the programme to the UN's mandate on inclusive economic growth. Her remarks tied female entrepreneurship to gender parity within the formal private sector. The emphasis on the word formal is deliberate. Women own and run many small businesses in Guyana, but those that operate informally cannot bid for institutional contracts, borrow easily from banks or appear on the supplier lists of large companies. Formalisation is therefore a precondition for the wider goals the UNDP describes.

Whether the series produces results will become clear in the contract awards that follow. Thirty-nine participants is a small group in a national economy of this size, and the organisers have not said how many will be ready to bid, or when. Tracking how many of them register, pass audits and win tenders over the coming year would show whether the training changes outcomes or only builds awareness.

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