Bahamas News
Orange Alert! NIB activates business continuity plan to protect most vulnerable from COVID-19
#Nassau, The Bahamas – March 19 – 2020 —- The National Insurance Board (NIB) has activated its Business Continuity Plan (BCP) to address potential business disruptions, which may come as a result of COVID-19. NIB has been in contact with the National Coordinating Committee to ensure that the necessary actions are consistent with the national response.
NIB’s BCP is at the Orange Alert stage which concentrates on streamlining processes to protect the most vulnerable customers, such as the elderly, and to limit risks to staff. These changes will ensure that critical services continue to be provided, while ensuring the safety and health of our staff and customers. These measures are in addition to actions already taken to promote staff awareness and education of COVID-19 and upgrades to hygiene and cleaning regimes.
Suspension of Face-to-Face Verification Face-to-face pension verifications will be suspended until further notice. NIB will not prioritize suspension of benefits due to non-verification. For convenience, the verification form (B.75b) is available on NIB’s website, nib-bahamas.com. Beneficiaries who are able to may submit their completed forms electronically at verification@nib-bahamas.com email or, if possible, make use of drop boxes available at NIB offices.
NIB will also be using other modalities to confirm continuing eligibility as required by Regulation 13(2) of the National Insurance (Benefit and Assistance) Regulations. Additionally, the verification hotline, 502-1556, is available to answer questions.
Assignment of Bank Accounts for Benefit Payments While the majority of payments to NIB’s beneficiaries are made via direct deposit to bank and credit union accounts, some claimants have elected to receive their benefits via cheques. The National Insurance Board, as per its Business Continuity Plan, now strongly urges that all persons who receive benefit or assistance payments via cheques complete the Direct Deposit form, found on NIB’s website, to designate a bank or credit union account to facilitate continued payments in the event of a business disruption due to COVID-19. Please ensure that you are providing the full and correct account details (branch and account number) rather than the debit card number.
The completed Direct Deposit Form, together with account details, should be emailed to directdepositform@nib-bahamas.com as the preferred method; however, forms may also be received at Local Offices, where a drop box will be provided. An acknowledgement of your request, will be sent within 72 hours.
Registration for Employer Self Service (ESS) Portal NIB’s cashier services remain open for customers to pay NIB contributions at this time; however, in preparation for a business disruption, employers are urged to sign up for the Employer Self Service portal by emailing your request to ess@nib-bahamas.com and compliance@nibbahamas.com.
An ESS representative will guide you through the employer set-up process. You will be able to submit your contribution statements (C10 forms) and pay online via credit card via the portal. Cheque payments can also be submitted through the NIB cheque drop box or RBC online. Other payment arrangements are being finalized including instructions for wire payments.
Suspension of Face-to-Face Interview for New Claims Submissions NIB Customer Service Departments throughout The Bahamas remain open at this time. However, in our efforts to promote social distancing, claim forms will be collected, but the face-to-face interview that usually accompanies the submission of claims will be suspended until further notice. Customer Service representatives will telephone customers should additional clarifications be necessary. Claims will be acknowledged within 72 hours. Completed claim forms and supporting documents may also be emailed to customerservice@nib-bahamas.com (preferred method).
Temporary Suspension of NIB Smart Card Renewals NIB will temporarily suspend the expiration date for all NIB Smart Cards until further notice and the need for card renewals. NIB has contacted the financial institutions, utilities companies and government agencies which rely heavily on NIB’s Smart Card for identification purposes to advise that with immediate effect, all NIB issued Smart Cards should continue to be considered as valid, irrespective of the expiration date (and without the renewal security decal). These agencies have been provided with a hotline number and email to confirm the validity of any Smart Card presented. NIB advises that the National Insurance number of a person is unique and never changes. NIB further reminds that its Smart Card does not imply legal immigration status in The Bahamas. Proof of immigration status can only be verified by an appropriate immigration card/document.
NIB will continue to issue new Smart Cards for those with lost or stolen cards and first time cardholders for as long as it is practical and medically safe. Any further changes will be advised.
NIB will issue additional operational changes during the Orange Alert stage and encourages customers to visit www.nib-bahamas.com and Facebook for updates.
NIB Alert System – NIB COVID-19 Alert Stages:
ALERT NATIONAL THREAT LEVEL NIB’s RESPONSE
YELLOW COVID-19 threat to The Bahamas is imminent. NIB institutes internal BCP protocols.
ORANGE COVID-19 is confirmed in The Bahamas. NIB’s operations streamlined to protect those most vulnerable to COVID-19 outbreak and to limit risk to staff. Offices are open with amended operations procedures. Details will be available via website, Facebook and public notification systems.
RED COVID-19 warnings issued for businesses requiring them to alter normal operating procedures. Potential office closure with NIB’s core services offered through alternative channels. Details will be available via website, Facebook and public notification systems.
GREEN Outbreak in The Bahamas is deemed to be under control. Offices re-open and business resumes normal operations.
Contact: Tonique Williams | Public Relations Manager | tonique.williams@nib-bahamas.com | 242. 397. 3599
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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