STATEMENT: I will provide a substantive address to Parliament on developments specific to Grand Bahama.
This evening, I spoke directly about where our country is headed and what that means for families and communities on the island. I outlined steps my Government is taking to expand training and upskilling opportunities, because preparing people for new jobs and business openings is central to Grand Bahama’s future and the wider Bahamas.
I also announced additional affordability measures, including the removal of VAT on unprepared food sold in food stores. This action is intended to ease pressure on household budgets and provide relief people can feel in their daily lives.
I am fully aware that Grand Bahamians have questions about a range of issues that are important to you. Those concerns deserve clear answers and straightforward communication. That is why I intend to address Parliament directly on matters relating to Grand Bahama, so the country can hear clearly where progress is being made and what comes next.
I look forward to continued engagement with the people of Grand Bahama and to sharing further updates in the period ahead.
Prime Minister Davis’s National Address: Delivering on Affordability
My fellow Bahamians, brothers and sisters:
January in The Bahamas is a time of celebration and anticipation, as we honour the heroes who secured Majority Rule and embrace the hope and promise of the year ahead.
In January of 1967, after many years of courageous struggle, the Bahamian people achieved Majority Rule, ending centuries of exclusion from full economic and political participation in our own country.
In the decades since, Bahamians from every walk of life, and from islands across our archipelago, have come together to build our modern, sovereign nation.
I have studied our country’s history closely in order to learn from it – to know what it takes to change a nation.
Majority Rule and Independence gave us the keys to our freedom – the power to shape our own destiny.
We have achieved much to be proud of – but we know there’s so much more we can do with the power that is the beating heart of that legacy.
We have come out of crisis stronger, more determined – ready to build a new era of national ambition – one powered by Bahamian talent.
Tonight, I am going to outline some new policy changes to make life more affordable for Bahamian families.
But I will begin by briefly talking about the economy more broadly – specifically, how we’re expanding the ways Bahamians can get ready for new opportunities – and ready to be part of a new wave of Bahamian success stories.
With new technologies reducing the capital investment required for many business models, barriers to entry are lower.
That means we can open new doors – doors to Bahamian ownership, to Bahamian success and prosperity, and to new industries built and led by Bahamians.
It means we can accelerate our development – and build an economy where prejudice and privilege and gatekeepers matter a lot less, and your creativity and ability to innovate matter a lot more.
I know this might be hard to imagine – in a country where we often have to fight for every step of progress – and then fight to ensure that progress is not canceled.
Sometimes meaningful change does take decades – or even centuries – to achieve.
But there are moments when history accelerates, and revolutions in opportunity come all at once.
And I know my people are ready.
Eleven thousand Bahamians are enrolled in our government’s Upskill Bahamas initiative.
We are providing online courses – for free – from the world’s best universities and training institutes, so Bahamians can gain the skills to start or grow a business – or earn certificates in the skills that matter most in today’s economy.
Advances in technology are shaping and reshaping nearly every industry and field of work – and we’re going to make sure Bahamians are ready.
And it doesn’t matter whether or how long ago you completed your original schooling…
It doesn’t matter if you need to start with the basics or you are ready to gain advanced expertise –
The important thing to know is that we’re on your side, and we want to give you your best shot.
Upskill is an important investment in our people – and it’s only one of many.
We are overseeing a major expansion of BTVI – because specialty trades are one of the smartest ways to secure reliable – and very high – incomes.
We are training young Bahamians for the new energy economy – so that when we install solar farms and modern grids, it will be with Bahamian technicians and engineers.
We launched the nation’s first-ever National Apprenticeship Programme, providing young Bahamians with paid training and employment in the most in-demand sectors.
Our National Youth Guard started in this term, and it has already provided hundreds of young Bahamians job-ready skills while they trained to be ready to support us in times of emergency.
We passed the first law ensuring intellectual property rights for our artists, museums, and creatives, so they can benefit fully from what they produce.
We’re providing grants for fly-fishing guides and entrepreneurs, and increasing support for our athletes…
Our country’s first performing arts school is now in session…
Bahamians are gaining new skills in:
Sustainable agriculture, marine engineering, cybersecurity, nursing, meteorology, emergency medicine, hospitality, and more.
Along with investing in 21st century skills for our people, we are investing in 21st century infrastructure across our islands.
14 new and expanded airports, new roads and docks, renovated clinics, and two new hospitals.
And we’re the first government to undertake nationwide, comprehensive energy reform – because high electricity prices and power outages have been a burden for Bahamian families and businesses for decades.
It’s a huge undertaking – but it’s happening, finally.
Last summer was the first summer that anyone can remember with no load-shedding in New Providence – and that is really just the beginning of the benefits we’ll soon experience.
Our new land reform laws are another way we’re moving forward.
Just a few days ago, I had the privilege of handing over 216 conveyances to families who waited generations for legal recognition of the land that belonged to them.
We are replacing an outdated deed system with a modern land registry so Bahamians to claim, transfer, and protect what is theirs.
Bahamians know what land means. A marketable title can make all the difference between being turned away at a bank – or being able to secure a small business loan, improve a home, or pass on what’s yours to your children and grandchildren.
It’s not just Moore’s Island. Bahamians in Fox Hill, Bozine Town, Marsh Harbour – and in communities across the country – Bahamians who have lived on land for decades without secure paper, are going to have their lives changed.
A lot of progress is finally underway in our country –
I know it can be hard to believe, after we’ve been through such hard times.
But I don’t want you to doubt what your country, and your fellow citizens, are capable of.
And in fact, when you think about the major setbacks we have endured in recent years, any one of which could be considered catastrophic on its own – you should be encouraged, not discouraged!
I’m going to tell you why:
In 2018, the previous government raised VAT from 7.5% to 12%, a sixty percent increase which was followed by a massive $2 billion drop in local consumer spending.
Unfortunately, that meant our families, our economy, and our fiscal situation were weaker when we faced the terrible tragedy of Dorian, the Category 5 hurricane which followed Joaquin in 2015, Matthew in 2016, and Irma in 2017.
Seven point seven billion dollars – that’s the amount in economic losses we sustained just the last decade, because of hurricanes – according to the Inter-American Development Bank.
$7.7 billion.
Then of course, there was the pandemic – and the extensive damage of the endless lockdowns, curfews, tourist visas, and emergency orders in place before we came in.
How much do international experts calculate for the impact of COVID? Another $9.5 billion in economic losses for our country.
Where could we be as a country, without these massive billion-dollar economic hits to our economy, and to our country’s bottom line?
Where could we be, if we had been able to invest more and earlier in our infrastructure and people and progress, instead of needing to borrow again and again, for relief and reconstruction and recovery, to rebuild schools and roads, to pay public workers, to help Bahamians who lose homes and businesses?
These are legitimate questions, but ultimately, they are heart-breaking, too.
Instead, it’s more productive to ask – what does it mean that we pulled off such a strong recovery despite these billion-dollar hits?
Because it’s hard to imagine any other country our size surviving shocks of this magnitude.
In just a few short years, we turned collapse into recovery.
We turned downgrades into upgrades.
We turned crisis into progress.
When S&P raised our rating – they gave us the best outlook for our country in seventeen years.
We have succeeded in removing our country from the blacklist – a critical achievement for our financial services industry.
We’ve attracted more than $10 billion in new private sector investment – including from some of the most prestigious partners in the world.
We are on the right track…
Because we made the right policy choices under pressure…
Because international leaders and investors believe in us …
Because our banks and our currency and our institutions held strong, and
Because Bahamians are infinitely creative and resilient.
Now, don’t let anyone tell you that the pace and the scale of our country’s recovery were inevitable – that’s just wrong on the facts.
We opened the economy when others were hesitant and uncertain.
We put in a pioneering program for free nationwide COVID testing, which protected Bahamians and reassured travelers.
We aggressively promoted the country abroad.
That’s how we got a head start on our tourism competition – and we haven’t let up since, with record investments across our islands, with public-private partnerships for those 14 expanded and new airports, with new and expanded airlift, and with innovative programmes to incentivize local partnerships.
We worked to help families and our local economy.
We cut VAT from 12 to 10%;
We paid out millions in stipends and arrears that had been on hold, to nurses, teachers, and thousands of other Bahamians;
We have signed sixty labour agreements –
And we raised the minimum wage.
So many people said – we couldn’t help people this way, we couldn’t make these changes, or pay people what they were owed, or give any kind of raise – because of hard economic times.
But I felt the opposite was true.
These policies mattered – to people, and to the country – and they were central to our recovery.
And that recovery is just a stop on the way to something better.
Because we didn’t come here to defend the status quo. We came here to change it.
Let’s talk about how we’re doing that when it comes to one of our toughest challenges, the high cost of living.
Addressing affordability requires action on multiple fronts.
Our Catastrophic Health Care Fund has already allowed hundreds of Bahamians to receive life-changing or life-saving treatments and surgeries. 44,000 Bahamians currently receive free medications through the National Prescription Drug Plan – and we just increased the number of medications which are covered from 72 to 142. We are also expanding eligibility, so soon up to 160,000 Bahamians living with chronic conditions can access essential medicines at no cost.
This is the kind of relief that will take pressure off families – and we are applying that same urgency to another burden: the high cost of housing and the shortage of affordable homes.
We have hundreds of new affordable homes completed and occupied, or under construction – in a number of communities.
These homes will make all the difference to so many Bahamian families – but we know that’s not nearly enough to meet the demand.
That’s why we are pushing beyond one-off projects and actively developing models for partnering with private developers, so we can build faster, at scale, and in communities across multiple islands.
Only by unlocking that kind of collaboration – government providing the framework and support, the private sector bringing additional capital and capacity – can we deliver at the necessary scale
Now, we all know that for many households, the electricity bill is second only to rent or the mortgage.
It may not surprise you to learn that many of the critical transformers and substations in our electric grid are older than Independence, and up to 80 percent of our generation fleet needs to be replaced within a few years.
That’s why we decided to take all of it on – upgrading and modernizing the whole grid, building New Providence’s first utility-scale solar plant, and investing in new hybrid microgrids in the Family Islands, which combine solar and cleaner fuels, replacing expensive rental generators and fragile old units.
These changes will reduce bills, with the savings growing as progress continues.
For Bahamian businesses, high and unpredictable electricity costs have made it harder to invest, hire, and expand. That’s going to change.
I remember what it’s like when your paycheck comes in – and no matter how hard you worked, you know it won’t cover what you need it to cover.
Rent, electricity, transportation, school expenses, caring for children – it adds up fast.
For too many Bahamians, the pressure at the supermarket checkout is still hitting hard.
Our country’s dependence on food grown abroad, and the way the global economy has become so interconnected, has made us too vulnerable to shocks we do not control – from supply chain breakdowns to wars and conflicts thousands of miles away.
I hope all Bahamians will take both pride and some comfort in learning that our agriculture, our forestry and farming sector is growing at an impressive pace.
We are investing in new initiatives, including hydroponics, and empowering our farmers through grants, the Buy-Back Programme, Coconut 360, and Around the Family Islands initiative. These efforts help our farmers and producers find markets and scale up – and they mean we can buy local, so we can eat healthier and pay lower prices.
Hundreds of young Bahamians noticed our progress in building food security and strengthening our nation’s blue and green economies – and we now have record enrollment at BAMSI.
We’ve launched trade diversification efforts to source goods directly from new markets, cutting out unnecessary middlemen to reduce costs.
These efforts really do make a difference – but some of the impacts take time – and hungry children can’t wait. That’s why we started our School Breakfast Programme – which has now served our schoolchildren more than one million, four hundred thousand hot breakfasts – so our children can focus on learning, and families save at the market.
Early in our term, we reduced customs duties on many food items, including fresh produce, and we expanded price controls.
We heard you when you said you were concerned the savings weren’t always passed on, so we hired additional price inspectors.
Then, last year, we cut VAT on food from 10 to 5% – and tonight, I’m announcing the next step.
Effective April 1st, all we are eliminating VAT entirely on all food sold in food stores.
This will apply to fresh fruits and vegetables, baby food, lunch snacks, frozen foods, and other groceries – everything except prepared meals sold hot or ready to eat.
It is a significant step, and one we hope will really help, along with our efforts to reduce costs through energy reform, the addition of new trading partners, and more home-grown food.
We’re also expanding property tax relief. Owner-occupied duplexes and triplexes are now eligible for the residential exemption. First-time homeowner concessions have been expanded.
These are changes which will help more Bahamian families build wealth.
My friends:
These new policies – across education, trade, taxes, housing, food security, energy, and more – together, add up to relief and progress.
We responded to times of crisis with great strength.
Now we are using those same strengths to move forward.
After all, we didn’t survive all the tragedy and hard times just to settle for the status quo.
The world will keep changing – but so will we, with confidence, and without leaving anyone behind.
May God Bless You All and may God bless the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.
