Bahamas News
BAHAMAS: SBDC Family Island Roll-out Begins with Exuma
#Exuma, October 25, 2018 – Bahamas – The Access Accelerator Small Business Development Centre has kicked off its Family Island rollout on Exuma, meeting with the Exuma Chamber of Commerce and holding a town hall meeting in Georgetown, where dozens of excited entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs gathered to hear about the new entity and to sign up.
Access Accelerator Executive Director Davinia Blair was a featured speaker at the Exuma Business Outlook as well. She spoke to the crowd about what the data said about Exuma’s Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs).
Town Hall
One attendee at the town hall meeting was enthusiastic about the advent of the Access Accelerator, though she lamented that such an entity took so long to come to life.
“If this had been around when I was first starting out, I’d be a millionaire,” she said.
Another attendee summed up the need for the Access Accelerator when she described her frustrations trying to get her business idea off the ground.
She said, “I couldn’t find the right people to get into contact with.”
In addition to discussing the services the Access Accelerator will begin offering Exumians today (Tuesday), Ms. Blair acknowledged what some attendees said, that MSME development did not appear to have kept pace with the development of the island overall, even though by some measures, MSMEs in Exuma are outperforming the larger businesses.
Ms. Blair reiterated that the government has committed that 20 percent of its procurements would be reserved for MSMEs. She said in addition to that commitment, there must be a commitment to include local MSMEs in the supply chain for foreign direct investment (FDI) opportunities.
“Bahamian MSMEs – and for Exuma projects, Exuma MSMEs – must be at the table as heads of agreements are being negotiated,” Ms. Blair asserted.
Rollout
Later in October, the Access Accelerator will be in Abaco, where the Access Accelerator team will meet with the Abaco Chamber and hold a town hall meeting to introduce the Access Accelerator and connect with the local entrepreneurial community.
In November, Blair is expected to speak at the Long Island Business Outlook, and other islands to which the Access Accelerator is bound before taking a break for the Christmas season include Andros and Eleuthera.
Action
With the new name and branding, the Access Accelerator Small Business Development Centre has three critical new hires which highlight the tremendous momentum generated by the official launch on September 20, and carried into the first two weeks of operations, including the graduation of the first classes of entrepreneurs from the two-week introductory course, both in New Providence and Grand Bahama.
The SBDC is the product of a tri-partite arrangement between the Government, through the Ministry of Finance, University of The Bahamas (UB) and the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employer’s Confederation (BCCEC). The Centre has a three-year mandate initially to guide the development, funding, growth and evolution of Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (“MSMEs”) in The Bahamas.
Executive Director Blair announced that the SBDC had hired a Senior Business Development Specialist, an Associate Director of Operations and had contracted someone to design and build the Access Accelerator website.
Mr. Nicholas Higgs is the Centre’s new Senior Business Development Specialist, tasked with providing business development advisory services to MSMEs and assisting the Executive Director with overall operation of the program.
Mr. Higgs is responsible for providing counseling on all aspects of small business operations including but not limited to management, financing, operations, marketing and personnel. He will have a special emphasis on capital advising for small businesses. In addition, Mr. Higgs will conduct client counseling, assist in the development and implementation of training events and workshops, promote Access Accelerator services, network with community organizations involved in small business and economic development, and assist in maintenance of data in the Access Accelerator Client Activity Training System (CATS).
“I view my role as one of the most important in fostering and growing startups, small and medium companies in 
the country. My role specifically is to assist companies with sharpening their financial swords to fulfill their goals of raising funds, expanding their companies or to simply become a more efficiently-run company,” said Mr. Higgs, who sees the Access Accelerator, and by extension himself, as something of a Jedi master for Bahamian startups.
Ms. Bianca Lee is the new Associate Director of Operations, tasked with oversight, supervision and administration of the SBDC’s business operations.
“I am very excited, because we will be able to focus on a section of the market that I believe has been untouched. Entrepreneurship is a big thing, especially among young people – even in passing you can hear people talking about their entrepreneurial dreams. Being able to provide support and guidance to those persons will be amazing, especially to assist that process from start to finish,” she said.
Meanwhile, the SBDC has selected Travis Miller of Thought & Method to develop the SBDC website, which is expected to be launched for public use in mid-December 2018.
Said Miller, “I’m excited about the SBDC because the initiative will allow entrepreneurs more opportunities to get their ideas out there and develop or refine their businesses and likely get access to funding to help make their dreams a reality. I believe what SBDC will provide will impact the landscape for entrepreneurs for years to come.”
The new hires come after the appointment of the SBDC Board of Directors, chaired by Geoffrey Andrews and Deputy Chair Dr. Olivia Saunders, two weeks ago. The new board includes Merrit Storr, Ellison Delva, Clifford Johnson, Hank Ferguson, Tyrina Neely, Gina McKenzie, Remelda Moxey, Kristie Powell, Christopher Sawyer and Pedro Rolle.
Press Release: Small Business Development Centre
Photo Captions:
Header: Executive Director of the Access Accelerator Ms. Davinia Blair discusses the new entity with entrepreneurs in Exuma at a town hall-style meeting, where she advocated for Exuma businesses to be included in discussions about FDI projects planned for Exuma.
Insert: Executive Director of the Access Accelerator Ms. Davinia Blair discusses the new entity with entrepreneurs in Exuma at a town hall-style meeting, where she led a panel including Exuma Chamber of Commerce President Pedro Rolle and Department of Inland Revenue
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.
