Grenada earned over EC$380 million from CBI programme last year

The Grenada government says it has recorded EC$382.2 million in revenue last year from the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme that was recently rebranded as the Investment Migration Agency Grenada (IMA).

Under the CBI programme, foreign investors are granted citizenship of the island in return for making a substantial investment in the socio-economic development of Grenada.

The Ministry of Finance in a statement posted on its website noted the fiscal report for December 2023 showed that 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, surpassing the EC$149.2 million earned in 2022.

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 shows that the Cabinet had approved 4764 new citizens and denied or rejected 58.

For the quarter ending March 2023, the amount approved was 980; for the quarter ending June 2023 it was 1536; for the quarter ending September 2023 it was 1112 and for the quarter ending December 2023 the amount was 1166.

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. Since coming to office in June 2022, the Dickon Mitchell led National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration has not approved any new project for the CBI/IMA programme.

The 2023 windfall was as a result of Grenada accepting Russians citizens to become citizens through the programme but the Government ceased to accept Russian applications as of March 31 2023. However, all who applied by March 31 had until November 30 to submit all required information for processing.

This has resulted in the Government earning EC$163.5 million for the first four months of 2024.

The government estimates that in 2024, it will earn EC$280. 6 million from the CBI/IMA programme.