Bahamas News
BAHAMAS: GBPA’s CCEI Program Supporting Growth for ICT/BPO Sector
#Freeport, GB, September 17, 2018 – Bahamas – As Grand Bahama students head back to school, high school seniors will have more and new options to prepare themselves for the workplace, within the island’s growing Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector. Although Grand Bahama 
is a new and small player within this multi-billion-dollar industry; executives at The Grand Bahama Port Authority, Limited (GBPA), say that Freeport is ready to capture a greater share of the consistent growth and investments occurring within this burgeoning sector.
A little over two years ago, GBPA and partners, itelBPO Solutions, established the Contact Center Education Initiative (CCEI), and to-date more than 1000 students have completed the program. Whilst it was initially intended to serve the newly established ICT industry; skills gained have allowed graduates to easily assimilate into any professional environment.
GBPA president, Ian Rolle explains “We’re very pleased with the results of the CCEI program thus far, and appreciate its focus on equipping graduates with meaningful skills that are essential in building this high growth sector. By virtue of the recent branding of Grand Bahama, as the nation’s Tech Hub, prospective companies will have natural expectations regarding our offerings and basic amenities, such as existing infrastructure (both hard and soft), and developed human capital with key skillsets to support this claim. If Grand Bahama is to be competitive, it must strive to become best in class in all of these areas. The CCEI initiative was a deliberate effort to address the key issue of skills development, and help to position Grand Bahama as an attractive location for nearshore operations,” Rolle added.
Students going into the CCEI program can expect more Marketing and e-Commerce related courses including, E-Commerce – Intro. to Internet Marketing Strategies for Businesses; Diploma in E-Business and Social Media Strategy for Small Businesses. These will complement existing diploma courses in Customer Service, Introduction to Sales Management and Leadership Skills in Business.
Recent statistics released by the Site Selection Group for 2017, highlighted an increase of nearly 16,500 jobs in the Call Center industry for Latin America and the Caribbean region. Jamaica and Costa Rica accounted for the lion’s share of that increase. Leading activities included BPO Services, Financial Services, and Telecommunications, followed by Retail Services.
Sr. Manager of Business Development for GBPA and Invest Grand Bahama, Derek Newbold, explained that Freeport has seen year on year growth within the BPO sector since GBPA attracted the nation’s 1st stand-alone operator 3 years ago.
“Freeport continues to experience steady growth across the BPO sector. We expect this trend to continue as more global companies look to set-up nearshore operations,” Newbold stated. “Since establishing operations in 2015, itelBPO Solutions has consistently increased its headcount and has recently expanded into a new facility to accommodate this growth.”
“For many third-party players the need for referenceability is key, in order to validate that a delivery point has what it takes to perform front-office BPO functions. In the case of Grand Bahama, these providers come in the form of itelBPO and the newly launched GIBC Digital.
The number of locations for delivery of English-language services has never been as varied as it is today. Jurisdictions offer prospective investors different attributes, and in the case of Grand Bahama the focus is clearly on quality. Grand Bahama provides stability, investor support and accessibility, alongside a pragmatic focus that we have placed on developing and growing the ICT Sector. It is likely that as providers and their clients look for locations from which value-add services can be delivered, this jurisdiction will gain more prominence in the global outsourcing discussion.,” Newbold concluded.
Release: GBPA
Photo Captions:
Header: A little over two years ago, GBPA and partners, itelBPO Solutions, established the Contact Center Education Initiative (CCEI). To-date more than 1000 students have successfully completed the program. Pictured are BMES students, who were the first to access the online learning platform; they continue to produce some of the most outstanding students with exceptional score ratings.
Insert: Since establishing operations in 2015, itelBPO Solutions has consistently increased its headcount and has recently expanded into a new facility to accommodate this growth. Image: itelbpo headquarters Montego Bay, Jamaica.
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.
