NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (September 30, 2025) – Premier the Honourable Mark Brantley has announced that the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis and the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) are close to reaching an agreement on the long-standing “Fair Share” Citizenship By Investment (CBI) revenue-sharing issue.

“We have had some progress, because the question of the numbers aside for the moment, I think what we determined was more important was the framework for sharing. We can quibble over whether the statistics were correct…

“Has there been progress? Yes, because the Prime Minister has recently discussed with me that he wants to move with some alacrity to a percentage basis for sharing the revenue. He had to leave to go off to the United Nations and so I am hopeful that when he’s back, we can engage further. And that percentage basis is, in my humble opinion, long overdue because there was always a framework for it…So we’ll have to have that discussion and that debate and to determine how we now move forward,” he said at his monthly press conference today, September 30.

Reflecting on past delays, Premier Brantley, Minister of Finance, noted that some people had criticized him for saying that the issue could have been worked out quickly, even by a sixth former. He explained that in his view, the World Bank was never necessary, and had initially been engaged merely to delay the process. When the new government took over in St. Kitts, it claimed that the World Bank was already involved and therefore continued the engagement.

He cited the Charlestown Accord of 2013, signed by the late Hon. Vance Amory, Hon. Dr. Timothy Sylvester Harris, and Hon. Shawn Richards, which included a pro rata sharing formula for CBI revenues based on population. He pointed out that the World Bank had provided various scenarios but stated they preferred a pro rata share.

Premier Brantley illustrated the potential impact of an earlier agreement, noting that if Nevis had received 25 percent of CBI revenues at a time when the programme was generating $600 million a year, that share would have amounted to $150 million for the island. He explained that instead, Nevis initially received $2 million a month, or $24 million for the year, and that this amount gradually increased to $5.5 million a month, or $66 million for the year.

“Now I am not going to stand up here and be ungrateful because $66 million for the year is a far cry from nothing, which is what we used to get before. But if we were getting a percentage when CBI revenues were flooding the streets of Basseterre, you realize that that $66 million pales in comparison to the $150 million I just mentioned that the 25% would yield.

“Because if it was 25% for example, and we were to go back in time, just like our sister St. Kitts, I would have been proud to stand up in the parliament and say surplus after surplus after surplus, but in truth we were not able to say that because while St. Kitts was saying surplus Nevis was saying overdraft, yet more overdraft, more debt because we were not afforded a fair share of these revenue streams.”

Acknowledging current realities, he added that CBI receipts today were naturally much lower than in previous years, and therefore a percentage-based share now would not yield Nevis what a similar percentage would have produced in earlier years.

Looking ahead, Premier Brantley expressed optimism that, with the new relationship between Basseterre and Charlestown, the two islands could move past these types of issues. He acknowledged that the past could not be changed, but he believes it is possible to consecrate the future.

“It is for us to work together in goodwill to see how we can move these two islands forward and to ensure that the people of Nevis and the people of St. Kitts benefit equally from the fruits of their citizenship.

“And that is and has always been my position on the matter. But as I said, there has been some movement. We now have a proposal of a share and when the Honourable Prime Minister returns I hope to engage further to come to some conclusion on that matter,” he said.