The Sugar Industry Diversification Foundation (SIDF) has released new financial statements for contributions collected under Citizenship by investment (CBI) program.
According the data from SIDF audit reports, St Kitts received close to US$661 million from CIP contributions between 2007 to 2016. The new 2016 audit report was published was at the end of 2018.
The Sugar Industry Diversification Foundation (SIDF), established in September 2006 under the Foundations Act of 2003. The purpose of the Foundation is to research into the development of other industries to replace the sugar industry; to fund the development of these industries and to fund ongoing research and development to ensure the sustainability of these alternative industries.
The SIDF Foundation was designated as a special approved project for the purposes of the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis Citizenship by Investment Programme. Accordingly, persons making contributions at prescribed levels to the Foundation, are eligible to apply for citizenship by investment. Contributions were recognised as income when applicants are approved for citizenship by the Government. The SIDF fund required USD 250,000 one time investment contribution in exchange for citizenship under investment scheme.
CIP Contributions to SIDF
| SIDF contributions | ECD (millions) |
| 2007 | 19.2 |
| 2008 | 36.04 |
| 2009 | 54.3 |
| 2010 | 153.7 |
| 2011 | 232.9 |
| 2012 | 334.5 |
| 2013 | 330.7 |
| 2014 | 292.3 |
| 2015 | 209.9 |
| 2016 | 124.8 |
| Total in ECD | ECD 1,788.34 million |
| Total in USD | USD 661.71 million |
On Nov 22, 2014, The Government of Canada revoked visa waiver agreement for travellers with St Kitts and Nevis passports, which explains to the fall of CIP revenues from 2015 onwards.
The St Kitts government introduced Hurricane relief Fund (HRF) in Oct 2017 and this scheme ran for six months until Mar 31, 2018 requiring reduced $150,000 contribution replacing SIDF. The Government disclosed 1200 applications received under HRF scheme.
After the expiry of HRF, a new fund was replaced with Sustainable Growth Fund (SGF) requiring the same $150,000 contribution which is currently active and running.
