Govt eyes SPV for agriculture funding

AGRICULTURE and Marine Resources Minister Michael Pintard.

As of Friday, July 3, 2020

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The government is eyeing the creation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that will raise and channel financing towards agriculture, a Cabinet minister said yesterday.

Michael Pintard, minister for agriculture and marine resources, told Tribune Business that the government is working with the financial services industry to develop a structure that can capture private sector funding for Bahamian farmers.

“We are working with some members of the financial services community in order to create an agricultural fund to create substantial funding that will be raised from the private sector,” Mr Pintard said.

“We are working with some very talented people out of the private sector, and I hope to carry a paper to Cabinet in the month of July. One of the finance papers has already been submitted, and we are just waiting for it to make the agenda.

“The second one will actually have the structure of the SPV that we are setting up in order to go to market to raise capital. We have a tremendous amount of unused land that we can use to leverage in order to raise capital.”

Mr Pintard predicted that the Bahamian agriculture sector will see more “inward flows of capital or investment” by July 2021.

birdiestrachan 3 years, 9 months ago

Three years has passed and he is still talking. Cheap talk. and there is no movement just talk cheap talk.

tribanon 3 years, 9 months ago

Notwithstanding the appalling track record of the Minnis led FNM government in managing our country's financial affairs, this bozo Pintard thinks private investors are going to inject significant sums of capital into a SPV created and controlled by government. Now that's got to be the joke of the day!