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THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 2025
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NHI: 84% patient visit rise renews funding concerns By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net NATIONAL Health Insurance (NHI) needs “a significant increase” in funding to “sustain the quality of care” after patient visits to doctors and other providers increased by 84 percent in just two years. Dr Duane Sands, a former minister of health, told Tribune Business the 67,228 rise in ‘patient appointments’ between 2022 and 2024 showed the Government-run scheme will not be able to maintain treatment standards and improve the quality of “health outcomes” unless more funding and other resources are provided to keep pace with this growth in usage. While the patient visits data, disclosed in the recently-released NHI performance report for 2024,
DR DUANE SANDS
DR MICHAEL DARVILLE
• Sands: Major increase needed to ‘sustain care quality’ • Accuses successor of ‘cop out’ over scheme financing • Minister hails improved care access, diagnosis growth
is in many respects positive because it shows Bahamians are increasingly accessing primary healthcare services, the Opposition’s chairman reiterated his long-standing concern that the ‘value for money’ received by numerous patients remains “absolutely dismal”. However, Dr Michael Darville, minister of health and wellness, in a statement responding to this newspaper’s inquiries hailed the 85 percent increase in patient visits as an indication of NHI’s “transformative impact” on the health and quality of life for many Bahamians. He added that the rise showed “growing public trust” in the scheme. The 2024 performance report, compiled by the NHI Authority, which oversees the Government-funded and managed healthcare initiative, also detailed
THE Central Bank’s governor yesterday confirmed the regulator is “monitoring matters” at a Bahamian digital payments provider subject to client complaints about delays in having their money refunded. John Rolle, in a brief messaged reply to Tribune Business inquiries on whether the Central Bank is watching the situation at Island Pay, declined to provide details other than to say: “The Central Bank is monitoring
matters but cannot comment publicly on issues involving supervised financial institutions.” Andrew Allen, who late last year became Island Pays chairman, declined to comment further yesterday in a messaged response to this newspaper following attempts to reach him. However, wellplaced sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Tribune Business that the payments provider appears to have “paused” its business and placed it on hold until it develops its own technology platform.
BTC urges URCA: ‘Make it easy’ for new network By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) yesterday asserted it will move “as fast as regulators allow” in rolling out the new network technology that its top executive branded as “a huge deal”. Sameer Bhatti, the carrier’s chief executive, told Tribune Business that the next-generation fixed wireless access technology formally launched in Bimini yesterday is already in the process of being introduced to BTC’s Eleuthera customers.
SAMEER BHATTI Disclosing that the new network’s roll-out on that island should be completed by next month, and all 600 BTC clients migrated over
WIRELESS - See Page B6
PM denies own Budget speech on surplus miss By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net THE Prime Minister last vehemently denied projecting a $135.4m fiscal surplus for April even though this forecast is detailed in his written 2025-2026 Budget communication. Prime Minister Philip Davis KC repeatedly rejected Opposition accusations during a heated debate with Free National Movement (FNM) finance spokesman and east
Grand Bahama MP, Kwasi Thompson. “I never projected a surplus in April. And, in fact, this concept of the deficit in April was raised by the member for east Grand Bahama that he continues to repeat. We are not denying it’s a deficit. We’re not denying it. There was a deficit,” said Mr Davis. “There’s no argument. We never said that there would be a surplus in April. We never said that there was not a deficit in April.
DEFICIT - See Page B10
Mr Allen on Wednesday blamed “an extremely disruptive and unhealthy relationship” with a third-party provider, who he declined to name, for Island Pay’s present woes while conceding that it was enduing “a bad time”. This newspaper understands the payment provider may be locked in disputes with both the entity that built the platform and licensed it to Island Pay, and a separate company that hosts its technology platform, over the payment of fees. It is thought the latter may have suspended the Bahamian provider’s access to the platform,
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CFAL eyeing $100m target for new fund • Private equity launch ‘exceeds’ $20m goal • Raise attracted 5,000 investors; 2,000 new • Possible doubling to $40m within 12 months By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
thus forcing it to announce a “five-month” migration earlier this week. Island Pay, in a newspaper advertisement issued yesterday, asked hundreds of clients to visit its Sandyport offices and bring their Know Your Customer (KYC) verification documents and bank account details so that it can transfer the monies due and owing to them. It confirmed that they would be unable to access their electronic wallets and funds stored on the legacy platform.
A BAHAMIAN investment house yesterday said it “exceeded” the $20m target for its new private equity fund’s first capital raise as it unveiled ambitions to expand to $100m in assets long-term. Anthony Ferguson, ANTHONY president of CFAL, FERGUSON told Tribune Business that the fund could potentially double in size to $40m within 12 months if fresh infrastructure projects that meet its investment criteria emerge as expected. He added that the fund’s launch, and initial capital raise, attracted 2,000 new Bahamian retail, or individual, investors to participate. “We exceeded our expectations,” the CFAL chief disclosed of the initial offering. “We have over 2,000 new registrants. Most people who are in the Bahamas Investment Fund also invested. We have catered to 5,000 retail investors. “We exceeded our target. We have over $20m, and we’re still counting. So the response has been really good and we’re excited for the new young retail investors participating in this.” The Bahamas Investment Fund is the vehicle that was created by CFAL to allow Bahamian investors to invest in the Nassau Cruise Port, and which holds their collective 49 percent equity ownership stake in that project. The CFAL private equity fund’s first two investments will be EA Energy and Island
PROVIDER - See Page B6
CAPITAL - See Page B7
MEDICAL - See Page B7
Central Bank ‘monitoring’ situation with Island Pay By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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