by Linda Straker
- Kuwait Fund and The Saudi Fund for Development are loan co-financiers
- Agreement signed with OPEC Fund in December 2025 for new hospital construction
- MoHCD is executing agency of Project Polaris
The Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED), also known as the Kuwait Fund, and the Saudi Fund for Development are the co-financiers of the US$30 million loan that Grenada has received from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC Fund) to start the construction of the Hope Vale Medical City.
Marketed under the brand Project Polaris, the fund in December approved funding for the project, which, according to its website, was signed on 7 January 2026. The website also described which was explained as being the Ministry of Housing and Community Development.
EC$405 million of the EC$825 million in the 2025 Budget Loan Authorisation Bill was for the facility, which will be located at Calivigny, St George. The money is to be raised through loans, bonds, promissory notes or other financial instruments.
Targeted lenders will include the International Development Association, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Caribbean Development Bank, the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, the Regional Government Securities Market and Other companies, banks and or financial institutions. All agreements signed under the 2025 Loan Authorisation Act will be tabled in Parliament.
On 29 January 2026, the Government of Grenada disseminated a press release informing the public that Finance Minister Dennis Cornwall had signed a financing agreement with the OPEC Fund for International Development (the OPEC Fund) to advance the construction of Grenada’s new national hospital under Project Polaris, the country’s flagship healthcare transformation initiative.
This agreement, the release said, is for US$30 million, the first tranche of a US$60 million financing framework agreement signed with the OPEC Fund in December 2025 for the construction of the new hospital, a central component of the Hope Vale Medical City.
The signing ceremony took place at the Panama Convention Centre, Panama City, Panama, on the sidelines of the Latin America and the Caribbean International Economic Forum 2026. The Grenadian delegation was led by Minister for Finance, Honourable Dennis Cornwall, and included Project Polaris Project Sponsor Ambassador Andrea St Bernard, Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance Chevanne Britton-Telesford, and Lead Strategic and Financial Advisor and Project Consultant Damian Dolland.