Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, the Honourable Dr. Terrance Drew, joined a number of African and Caribbean leaders for a Presidential Panel on the “New World Order as an Alternative for Strengthening Africa-Caribbean Commerce, Funding, and Cultural Relations,” held on July 28, 2025, on the Radisson Convention Centre in Grenada.
– Commercial –
The high-level panel was a part of the fourth AfriCaribbean Commerce and Funding Discussion board (ACTIF2025), and featured leaders equivalent to Prime Ministers Mia Mottley (Barbados), Philip J. Pierre (Saint Lucia), Gaston Browne (Antigua and Barbuda), Roosevelt Skerritt (Dominica), and President Mohamed Irfaan Ali (Guyana). Rwanda’s Minister of Commerce & Business, Prudence Sebahizi, represented President Paul Kagame. CNN anchor Zain Asher moderated, and Dr. George Elombi, incoming Afreximbank President, delivered opening remarks.
In the course of the session, Prime Minister Drew made a pointed name for the removing of visa restrictions between Africa and the Caribbean, linking the difficulty on to misplaced enterprise alternatives.
“Two buyers had been imagined to be right here at the moment to signal an settlement with us—one couldn’t attend as a result of he wants a visa. That’s straight already affecting how we do enterprise,” he mentioned.
He added that whereas Saint Kitts and Nevis provides visa-free entry to a number of African international locations, together with Nigeria, the reciprocity is missing. “Now we have been welcoming Nigerian medical and diving college students for years, but Kittitians and Nevisians nonetheless want a visa to journey to Nigeria,” Drew famous, including that discussions with Nigerian officers are ongoing.
The panel underscored a shared imaginative and prescient to reshape Africa-Caribbean relations by elevated mobility, reciprocal commerce, and deeper cultural ties.
ACTIF2025, themed “Resilience and Transformation: Enhancing Africa-Caribbean Financial Cooperation in an Period of International Uncertainty,” continues to advertise significant partnerships between the 2 areas.
