by Linda Straker
- CBI revenue from January to July was EC$317.5 million
- Significant number of Russian applications received up to 31 March 2023 responsible for current high revenue
- 2024 marks programme’s first decade during which over 15,000 people have been approved as citizens of Grenada
The revenue earned from the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme has already surpassed the amount targeted for 2024 according to the July 2024 fiscal report recently released by the Ministry of Finance on its website.
The 2024 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure projected that from January to December, the revenue from the CBI will be EC$280,697,921 but data in the July fiscal report showed Government’s revenue from January to July was EC$317.5 million.
Thomas Anthony, Chief Executive Officer of the Investment Migration Agency (IMA), the entity responsible for the CBI programme, recently explained that the significant number of Russian applications Grenada received up to 31 March 2023 was responsible for the current high revenue. Grenada closed the programme to Russians as of 1 April 2023.
“We accepted our last application on the 31st March 2023. Yes, we continue to process those applications because it was a significant number and we are down to 50 of those left to clear them out of the system,” Anthony said during a public symposium on 1 October.
He further explained that the Russians who gained Grenada citizenship are not on any sanction list, but if that status changes in the future, then the necessary action will be taken. “If one of those Russians shows up on a sanction list post citizenship, then Grenada will have to make a decision,” he told the symposium.
Grenada’s CBI programme allows individuals and their families to obtain citizenship or permanent residence by applying through licenced agents. They may not make submissions to Government on their behalf.
The CBI Programme came into being in August 2013, when Parliament passed Act No. 15 of 2013, otherwise referred to as the Grenada Citizenship by Investment Act, 2013. The stated objective of the act is to “enable persons to acquire permanent residence and citizenship of Grenada by registration following investment in Grenada.”
2024 marks the first decade of the programme and during that period over 15,000 people have been approved to be citizens of Grenada. The data published by the IMA showed that approved applicants represent a wide cross-section of nations including the USA, Turkey, Nigeria, China, India, Vietnam, France, Spain, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Syria.
Selling your soverignty is equivalent to prostitution. It is a bastardization of our identity. Here are 15,000 “new” expatriate “Grenadians” – with more rights than native born Grenadians! They pay no taxes and we must maintain the supporting infrastructure for them. Talk about neo-coloniism at its zenith.
Prostitution survived forever. Will the CBI also have a similar track record?
We revel in our “independence” and our irrevocable links to our African “brothers”. In reality, our navel strings remain permanently tied to our former and new colonial masters. Hope you got that right.
Population replacement and displacement in the fast lane
this is not something we should be celebrating. this is alarming