The Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), Grenadian-born Timothy Antoine, is urging Caribbean governments administering Citizenship by Investment Programmes (CIP) to be more transparent and not to use the funds collected for recurrent expenditure.
A number of countries within the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU), including Grenada, offer CIP’s in a bid to lure foreign investors to their countries.
The other countries are Dominica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and St Lucia.
Under the programme, investors receive citizenship of the islands in return for making a substantial investment to the socio-economic development of the territories.
Antoine is telling the governments they should be “transparent by publishing all of the flows, the ins and outs of the funds.
He says the ECCB is recommending a number of measures to ensure that the funds received under the programme is properly utilized, given the fact that, and in his words, “none of us know how long the CIP will last.”
