"The time had come to bring Guyana ... in line with fellow Caribbean Community nations," said Labor and Human Services Minister Dale Bisnauth.
The legal age became a topic of debate in May when the media chronicled the plight of a mother whose 13-year-old daughter had moved in with a businessman in his 40s.
The man and girl refused to listen to pleas from relatives and human rights organizations to terminate their relationship.
A High Court judge placed the girl in the care of the state, sending her to a correctional center for troubled teenagers.
The Guyana Human Rights Association had sought raise the consent age to 18.
"We really think that girls should be allowed the protection from adult males until age 18," the group's spokesman Merle McCormack said Friday.
