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Something Fantastic is happening – and MSME’s are driving it
Record demand and Heritage investment gains show Turks and Caicos Islanders increasingly seeking their own stake in the country’s booming development economy
PROVIDENCIALES, TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS — Something fantastic is happening in the Turks and Caicos Islands investment story. While billions of dollars in major developments continue to dominate the headlines, a record number of Islanders are stepping forward with an ambition of their own: to become business owners and investors themselves.
Invest TCI revealed at its fifth Annual General Meeting that 140 applications poured into its MSME programme during 2025/26 — the
CEO Angela Musgrove said the agency’s small-business team is now managing a portfolio of more than 300 businesses, with increasing numbers of Turks and Caicos Islanders reaching out for support.
“We continue to see where we have more and more Turks and Caicos Islanders with small businesses reaching out and seeking the support of the agency,” Musgrove told the AGM.
The September 15 meeting, held at The Ritz-Carlton, Turks and Caicos, put numbers behind that momentum. Invest TCI reported $900,000 in cash grants approved — 100% of its allocation — 53 concession orders approved and 214 MSMEs counselled, reaching 178% of target.
The movement comes alongside a massive 53-project investment pipeline valued at approximately $6.335 billion.
The comparison is not dollar-for-dollar. Large-scale developments overwhelmingly command the greater capital. What is changing is participation.
Premier Charles Washington Misick told the AGM that economic progress cannot be measured simply by buildings or capital entering the country, but by whether Turks and Caicos Islanders advance alongside that growth.
Musgrove says the objective now goes beyond grants: building sustainable Islander-owned businesses with stronger revenues, employment
That surge has also exposed areas where Invest TCI says its own systems need strengthening. In reviewing its 2025/26 performance, the agency identified MSME disbursement rates, monitoring visits and capacity-building referrals among areas requiring greater attention. Its response includes stronger client follow-up, earlier business-readiness checks and improved tracking and referral systems — changes aimed at moving more entrepreneurs successfully from application and approval into functioning, sustainable businesses.
The challenge now is to turn extraordinary local interest into lasting economic participation — businesses that survive, grow, employ Islanders and increasingly connect with the billions of dollars flowing through the wider development economy.
“One of the things that we want to do is to not simply provide grants, but we want to see stronger businesses remain operational,” Musgrove said. “We’re putting more effort into ensuring that our businesses have support so that we can see revenues of these small businesses increasing, we can see employment increasing and, of course, we can see greater participation in the wider economy.”
For decades, TCI’s investment story centred on attracting investors to these shores.
Increasingly, Islanders want to become the investors themselves.