by Linda Straker
- CBI 2023 revenue was EC$382.2 million and not EC$1.13 billion
- Fiscal reports for January to December 2023 were published mid-April 2024
- Government projecting CBI/IMA earnings of EC$280,697,921 for 2024
Government’s 2023 revenue from the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme recently rebranded as the Investment Migration Agency (IMA) Grenada, was EC$382.2 million according to the monthly fiscal reports published by the Ministry of Finance on its website, and not EC$1.13 billion.
The Government of Grenada’s fiscal report for December 2023 showed the targeted amount for the year was E$316 million, but the actual amount of revenue earned through the programme was EC$382.2 million. That amount more than doubled the EC$149.2 million earned in 2022.
All fiscal reports for January to December 2023 were published mid-April 2024, days before the Fiscal Resilience Oversight Committee (FROC) held its press conference to launch its 2023 annual report. The same day, the finance ministry also published the October to December 2023 quarterly report of the CBI programme.
The quarterly CBI/IMA reports provide a breakdown on the revenue for government, developers and agents as well as the number of citizens approved and or denied by the cabinet. A review of the January to December 2023 quarterly CBI reports showed that Cabinet — the collective representation of all government ministers — approved 4,764 new citizens and denied or rejected 58.
For the quarter ending March 2023 the number approved was 980; for the quarter ending June 2023 it was 1,536; for the quarter ending September 2023 it was 1,112 and for the quarter ending December 2023 the number was 1,166.
According to the October to December quarterly report the cumulative CBI revenue for the year was EC$1,128,747,211 and from that amount, EC$671,625,000 were due to developers. Cumulative is defined as increasing or growing by accumulation or successive additions.
Since 24 June 2022, the Dickon Mitchell-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration has not approved any new project for the CBI/IMA programme. Some of the applications are under existing approved projects while the majority saw the applicants making a contribution to the National Transformation Fund (NTF).
The 2023 windfall was as a result of Grenada accepting Russians citizens to become citizens through the programme, but Government ceased to accept Russian applications as of 31 March 2023. However, all who applied by 31 March had until 30 November to submit all required information for processing. That initiative has caused a major backlog to the processing of applications and as a result some of the applications are currently being processed. This has resulted in Government earning EC$163.5 million for the first 4 months of 2024.
