GEORGETOWN (AFP) — Guyana, a small South American nation with the world’s largest oil reserves per capita, heads to presidential elections on Monday seeking to escape the “resource curse” that has plagued other petroleum-rich countries.

With an estimated 11 billion barrels of reserves for a population of 850,000 inhabitants — more per capita than Kuwait — the former British colony has experienced explosive economic growth since beginning oil production in 2019.

Incumbent President Irfaan Ali promises a “prosperous Guyana” with better education, economic diversification and sustainable development as he seeks re-election. His rivals make similar pledges to distribute oil wealth more equitably.

The country boasted world-beating growth of 43.6 percent in 2024, according to Ali’s government, with the state budget quadrupling in five years to reach $6.7 billion by 2025.

However, the oil bonanza has yet to transform daily life for many Guyanese who are cursed to live in poverty despite such abundant natural resources.

In Georgetown’s Chateau Margot neighborhood, Shaun Ferrier, 52, lives with his wife Naomi and five children in a small wooden shack he built on land he does not own, wedged between a highway and a canal.

The shack has no running water or electricity except for a solar panel providing minimal light. Ferrier works 12-hour night shifts seven days a week as a security guard, earning 110,000 Guyanese dollars ($525) monthly.

“It’s rough... Look how I’m living. I’m supposed to live better than this if I was benefiting,” Ferrier told Agence France-Presse.

“The bigger ones, they’re getting the money. Not the poor.”

While acknowledging that government child assistance has increased to 100,000 Guyanese dollars ($478) annually per child since the oil boom, Ferrier said it was not enough to change their circumstances.

‘Trickle-down won’t work’

Construction projects and roadworks are visible throughout Guyana as the government pursues more than 5,000 public projects, according to Public Works Minister Juan Edghill.

He said Guyana would not suffer from “Dutch disease,” referring to the economic phenomenon where natural resource abundance leads to industrial decline.

“We’re not Dutch,” Edghill he said.

Guyana aims to increase oil production from 650,000 barrels per day to more than one million by 2030, with revenues theoretically flowing into a sovereign wealth fund.

With this windfall, the government has increased social spending and promised investments in education and healthcare.

Opposition candidate Amanzia Walton-Desir questions the government’s approach.

“We have wealth coming into this country like we’ve never had. The people are still poor,” Walton-Desir said.

She argued that infrastructure spending and direct subsidies contribute to inflation, officially around four percent but felt more acutely by residents who face soaring food prices.

“The trickle-down economics that the government continues to practice... will not work,” Walton-Desir said, accusing the government of corruption and claiming that “for every dollar we spend on infrastructure, 41 cents is wasted.”