Bahamas News
29th International Customs Day Celebrations in Grand Bahama
#Bahamas, January 24, 2018 – Grand Bahama – The World Customs Organization (WCO) has over 177 Customs Administration members of which Bahamas Customs has been a member since 1974 and has benefited from technical expertise and advice. Gregory Jones, Assistant Comptroller of Customs with responsibility for the Grand Bahama District, said, “This year we will celebrate our International Customs Day, under the theme “A Secure Business Environment for Economic Development.
“According to the World Customs Organization Secretariat, ‘secure’ means an environment that is enabling, safe, fair and sustainable, all wrapped into one.
“Members of the WCO are encouraged to look at how they can create an environment for businesses that will foster their participation in cross-border trade, and ultimately, how they can best serve the people, and empower entrepreneurs.”
In Grand Bahama, the Customs Department will host the 3rd Northern Bahamas Long Service Awards and World Customs Organization Certificate of Merit Awards Ceremony, which will be held on Wednesday 24th January 2018, at 7pm at A Social Affair Convention Center off East Sunrise Highway, Freeport, Grand Bahama.
Among invited guests will be Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, the Hon. K. Peter Turnquest, and Comptroller of Customs Dr. Geanine Moss.
Topping the list for World Customs Organization Certificate of Merit Awards 2018 are:
Chief Customs Revenue Officer – Deborah Bootle
Cashier – Joan Scott
Topping the list of 16 Officers and Non-Uniformed Staff who will be honoured for long service:
Senior Customs/Revenue Officer – Pamela Williams – 30 years
Senior Customs/Revenue Officer – Miriam Fernander – 30 years
Senior Customs/Revenue Officer – Renia Predelus – 30 years
Senior Customs/Revenue Officer – Carnetta Farrington – 30 years
Senior Customs/Revenue Officer – Robert Julian – 30 years
Senior Customs/Revenue Officer – Linda Brown – 30 years
Customs/Revenue Officer II – Ellarese Thompson
Customs/Revenue Officer II – Terence Ferguson
Customs/Revenue Officer II – Verdell Russell
Senior Customs Guard – Herbert Rahming
Senior Executive Officer – Cheryl Whymns
Executive Officer – Ann Francis – 30 years
Chief Registry Clerk – Gwendolyn Henfield – 30 years
Customs/Revenue Officer I – 20 years Janell Heild
Customs/Revenue Officer I – 20 years Keva Powell –Williams
Telephonist I – 20 years
Other activities will include: 28th January – Church Service at Calvary Temple, Clive Avenue at 10am.
Jan. 29th – Feb. 2nd — A Customs Digital Exhibition will be held in the foyer of C. A. Smith Complex from 10am – 3pm.
16th February – Customs Staff will engage in Community Services by donating cleaning supplies and provide lunch and interact with the Senior Citizens at Home Away from Home Center for the Aged, located on 30 Amberjack Street, Caravel Beach between 11am – 2pm.
19th February – second community service will be at the Genesis Academy Trip Circle between 11am – 11pm where some of the male officers will assist with mentoring the young men there, and Customs Revenue Officer II Wenito Bootle will give a brief motivational speech. Other visits will follow.
“To ensure that our staff speak with one voice as they relate to the customs laws we will engage our staff in seminars and frequent briefings,” said Assistant Comptroller Jones.
“Further, to enhance our relationship with our stakeholders, particularly, the couriers and licensees, we will commence with two fora and others as needed.
“February 28th 2018 – Sessions for Couriers and Shipping & Airline Agents, Customs Brokers, 4pm-6pm, Room #3 C.A. Smith Complex.
“March 1st 2018 – Session with licensees who are Contractors, Manufacturers/or Custom’s Brokers associated with them.
Mr. Jones noted: “According to the WCO Secretariat, Evidence-based research, recognized internationally, clearly shows that Customs can contribute to making the business environment more ”enabling”, or in other words, more stable and predictable by, for example, streaming procedures, tackling corruption, enhancing, integrity and facilitation of legitimate trade.”
Mr. Jones said Bahamas Customs is also mindful of the need to ensure safety within the business environment. “But some threats come from within the trade itself, such as shipment of illicit goods, invoice fraud and smuggling of goods into the country to evade customs and taxes.
“Despite some of the challenges, concerns and criticisms that may come from our stakeholders, the Customs Department remains committed to resolving problems that may arise. After all we want to partner with our stakeholders to ensure that customs laws, regulations and policies are explained and understood before implementation,” he stated.
He concluded: “On behalf of the Comptroller of Customs, the Executive team and entire staff of Grand Bahama and Walker’s Cay, we take this opportunity to thank all of our stakeholders including members of the public for their support and the media for their presence and coverage of this occasion and the other activities to follow.”
Mr. Jones also offered special thanks to the committee that is responsible for organizing the Customs International Day Celebrations namely:
Chief Customs Revenue Officers Marsha Stubbs
Customs/Revenue Officer II Equianna Johnson
Customs/Revenue Officer II Keva Dames
Customs/Revenue Officer II Latonia Cash
Trainee Customs/Revenue Officer Alexander Burrows II
Senior Accounts Clerk Monique Rampersad
Register Clerk Karon Deveaux
Assistant Cashier Claudine Lightbourne
“Once again we thank all of you and we pray that 2018 be a great year for the Customs Department and our stakeholders,” he said.
By: Simon Lewis
Photo caption: Gregory Jones, Assistant Comptroller of Customs with responsibility for the Grand Bahama District is pictured seated centre along with other members of the planning committee as they announced plans for the 29th International Customs Day Celebrations on Grand Bahama during a press conference at Customs Headquarters in the C.A. Smith Complex on Monday, January 22, 2018.
(BIS Photo/Lisa Davis)
PM: Project delivers on promise and invests in youth, sports and national development
GRAND BAHAMA, The Bahamas — Calling it the fulfillment of a major commitment to the island, Prime Minister Philip Davis led the official groundbreaking for the Grand Bahama Aquatic Centre, a facility the government says will transform sports development and create new opportunities for young athletes.
Speaking at the Grand Bahama Sports Complex on February 12, the Prime Minister said the project represents more than bricks and mortar
— it is an investment in people, national pride and long-term economic activity. The planned complex will feature a modern 50-metre competition pool, designed to meet international standards for training and regional and global swim meets. Davis said the facility will give Bahamian swimmers a home capable of producing world-class performance while also providing a space for community recreation, learn-to-swim programmes and water safety training.
He noted that Grand Bahama has long produced outstanding athletes despite limited infrastructure and said the new centre is intended to correct that imbalance, positioning the island as a hub for aquatic sports and sports tourism.
The Prime Minister also linked the development to the broader national recovery and revitalisation of Grand Bahama, describing the project as part of a strategy to expand opportunities for young people, create jobs during construction and stimulate activity for small businesses once operational.
The Aquatic Centre, he said, stands as proof that promises made to Grand Bahama are being delivered.
The project is expected to support athlete development, attract competitions, and provide a safe, modern environment for residents to access swimming and water-based programmes for generations to come.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
The Bahamas, February 15, 2026 – For the better part of three years, Bahamians have been told that major Afreximbank financing would help transform access to capital, rebuild infrastructure and unlock economic growth across the islands. The headline figures are large. The signing ceremonies are high profile. The language is ambitious. What remains far harder to see is the measurable impact in the daily lives of the people those announcements are meant to serve.
The Government’s push to secure up to $100 million from Afreximbank for roughly 200 miles of Family Island roads dates back to 2025. In
its February 11 disclosure, the bank outlined a receivables-discounting facility — a structure that allows a contractor to be paid early once work is completed, certified and invoiced, with the Government settling the bill later. It is not cash placed into the economy upfront. It does not, by itself, build a single mile of road. Every dollar depends on work first being delivered and approved.
The wider framework has been described as support for “climate-resilient and trade-enhancing infrastructure,” a phrase that, in practical terms, should mean projects that lower the cost of doing business, move people and goods faster, and keep the economy functioning. But for communities, that promise becomes real only when the projects are named, the standards are defined and a clear timeline is given for when work will begin — and when it will be finished.
Bahamians have seen this moment before.
In 2023, a $30 million Afreximbank facility for the Bahamas Development Bank was hailed as a breakthrough that would expand access to financing for local enterprise. It worked in one immediate and measurable way: it encouraged businesses to apply. Established, revenue-generating Bahamian companies responded to the call, prepared plans, and entered a process they believed had been capitalised to support growth. The unanswered question is how much of that capital has reached the private sector in a form that allowed those businesses to expand, hire and generate new economic activity.
Because development is not measured in the size of announcements.
It is measured in loans disbursed, projects completed and businesses expanded.
The pattern is becoming difficult to ignore. In June 2024, when Afreximbank held its inaugural Caribbean Annual Meetings in Nassau,
Grand Bahama was presented as the future home of an Afro-Caribbean marketplace said to carry tens of millions of dollars in investment. What was confirmed at that stage was a $1.86 million project-preparation facility — funding for studies and planning to make the development bankable, not construction financing. The larger build-out remains dependent on additional approvals, land acquisition and further capital.
This distinction — between financing announced and financing that produces visible, measurable outcomes — is now at the centre of the national conversation.
Because while the numbers grow larger on paper, entrepreneurs still describe access to capital as out of reach, and communities across the Family Islands are still waiting to see where the work will start.
And in an economy where stalled growth translates into lost opportunity, rising frustration and real social consequences, the gap between promise and delivery is no longer a communications issue.
It is an inability to convert announcements into outcomes.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
A hardline strategy that reduced murders, gunfire, and collateral deaths
The Bahamas, February 8, 2026 – What happens when police stop routinely granting bail to high-risk suspects and aggressively execute outstanding warrants? In The Bahamas, the answer in 2025 was fewer murders, fewer gunshots, and safer communities.
The Royal Bahamas Police Force arrested 4,337 individuals on outstanding warrants last year, ensuring suspects were brought directly before the courts instead of being released back onto the streets. At the same time, police significantly curtailed the use of police bail for high-risk and repeat offenders, particularly those already entangled in violent disputes.
Police Commissioner Shanta Knowles said the shift was informed by hard lessons from previous years. Intelligence reviews showed that
many homicide victims were not random targets, but men already wanted by law enforcement and — critically — by other criminals. When released on bail, those individuals often became targets themselves, triggering retaliatory shootings that spilled into neighbourhoods, roadways and public spaces.
By keeping high-risk suspects in custody pending court appearances, police say they disrupted that cycle — removing both potential offenders and potential victims from the streets.
The impact was stark. Murders declined by 31 percent in 2025, falling from 120 in 2024 to 83, the largest percentage decrease in homicides since national tracking began in 1963 and the lowest murder count in nearly two decades.
Police leaders say the strategy also reduced the collateral damage that had increasingly alarmed communities. Innocent residents had been caught in “sprays of gunfire” as targeted attacks unfolded in residential areas, at traffic stops, and in public settings.
Gun-violence indicators reflected the change. Gunshot reports fell by 35 percent, while incidents detected by ShotSpotter technology declined by 29 percent, confirming that fewer shots were being fired across the country.
“Gunshots ringing out and cutting through our peaceful paradise were down remarkably,” Commissioner Knowles said, attributing the improvement to decisive enforcement, tighter bail practices, and sustained pressure on offenders.
Police also intensified enforcement against breach of bail conditions, charging and detaining more suspects than in any previous reporting period. Officers say the approach removed the opportunity for repeat offending while matters were before the courts.
Police leadership said the results go beyond statistics. By limiting bail for high-risk suspects and executing warrants at scale, the strategy saved lives, protected bystanders, and restored confidence in public safety.
In 2025, fewer people were hunted, fewer bullets were fired, and fewer families were left grieving — a shift police say was no accident, but the result of deliberate, hardline choices.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
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