St Vincent Has Drawn 1.9 Per Cent of EC$177.7 Million in Saudi Loans. EC$43 Million of It Expires on 31 December.

By LCN Business Desk

Three loan agreements, signed between May 2023 and April 2024, put the money at St Vincent and the Grenadines' disposal at two per cent over twenty years. EC$3,394,702.04 has been spent, against the 94.6 per cent of its capital budget Jamaica executed in 2024/25. Two of the three agreements close on 31 December 2026, fifty-seven days away, and what is in them has not been contracted.

Prime Minister Godwin Friday gave the figures to the House of Assembly on 22 October, answering opposition Senator Carlos James, who had asked for a project-by-project breakdown. "I am not satisfied with it," Friday said. "It will not be business as usual."

What exactly is unspent?

Everything but about EC$3.4 million, spread across three projects.

Figures as given to the House of Assembly on 22 October 2026 and reported by iWitness News and the St Vincent Times.

The hubs are at Bellevue, with satellites at Troumaca and Petit Bordel. The disaster agreement covers schools, housing, national security, health and sports facilities, and runs a further year.

Why has so little been drawn?

Because the lender never sends the money to the government at all.

The Saudi Fund does not transfer loan proceeds into the Treasury. It pays suppliers, contractors and consultants directly, against withdrawal applications filed by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning as executing agency. Nothing can be drawn until there is an invoice from somebody doing work.

"The work has to commence; it has to be ongoing," Friday told the House. The binding constraint on this portfolio is therefore contract award, not money, the same measure on which the Dominican Republic drew down 8.64 per cent of its World Bank financing in its last fiscal year.

Friday holds the finance portfolio himself alongside the premiership, so the ministry filing those applications is his own.

::: The money is committed at two per cent for twenty years, and it is undrawn. What is missing is signed contracts and work on the ground. :::

What did the government that signed it say would happen?

That construction would start in October 2024.

The agreements were negotiated by the previous Unity Labour Party administration, after Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves visited Saudi Arabia in June 2023. The party's own published account of the facility, in May 2024, set out the terms and the schedule: twenty years, a five-year grace period, two per cent fixed, with EC$24.3 million of counterpart funding from the government.

That account said final designs for the hubs were due at the end of May 2024 and that construction was expected to begin by October 2024, with the hubs and the South Rivers health facility delivered between 2024 and 2026. Two years later the hubs are unbuilt and the delivery window has nine weeks left.

The New Democratic Party won the general election of November 2025 by fourteen seats to one, and Friday was sworn in on 28 November 2025. Every one of the three agreements predates that.

What is the present government doing with the money?

Reconsidering one project, and asking the lender for time on the rest.

Friday told the House the government had made "alternate arrangements" for the cultural hub funds and the project, so that "the use of those funds and the nature of the project would be more effective while maintaining the same objectives", and did not say what they were. A change of that kind needs the lender's agreement, and the agreement has to be reached inside the same fifty-seven days.

Asked directly whether extensions were being sought for projects that would continue past the end of the year, Friday answered: "Yes, because… we have less than three months. So yes."

Nothing on the public record identifies a condition set by the Saudi Fund that St Vincent and the Grenadines has declined to meet. The reasons given in the House are the disbursement mechanism, the state of the projects on taking office, and the government's own change of direction.

Do the figures reconcile?

Two gaps: one of exactly EC$50,000, and one of about EC$3.7 million.

The two components of the spending add to more than the total. Upfront design and site work paid by the government came to EC$2,962,410.94, and EC$482,291.10 was to be paid directly by the fund. Those sum to EC$3,444,702.04, which is EC$50,000 more than the EC$3,394,702.04 given as total expenditure.

The portfolio arithmetic leaves a larger gap. Subtracting the unspent balances from the signed totals implies EC$7.1 million has gone, against EC$3.4 million reported spent, a difference of about EC$3.7 million. The balances are stated to one decimal place, so rounding can account for at most EC$150,000 of that.

Both discrepancies are internal to the figures Parliament has been given.

What does this mean for contractors and suppliers?

About EC$43 million has to reach signed contracts and started work within fifty-seven days, or two of the agreements close with it undrawn.

A facility that pays contractors directly is, from a contractor's side, unusually good security: payment does not depend on the borrowing government's cash position, because it never passes through it. What it does depend on is being appointed and starting, because an invoice is the only thing that triggers a withdrawal application.

The same island is financing infrastructure by other routes. Port Kingstown was handed to Global Ports Holding on a thirty-year cruise concession, a structure in which the operator carries the capital and the execution risk rather than the state. Across the region, the Caribbean Development Bank convened chief audit executives in Barbados on exactly this class of problem, the gap between what is approved and what is delivered, and Saint Lucia signed a US$243 million contract to finish its airport two days before these figures were given.

Concessional money at two per cent over twenty years is among the cheapest capital a small state can raise, and the regional comparator is the CARICOM Development Fund, which has disbursed US$169 million across ten member states since 2009. On two of St Vincent's three agreements it stops being available at the end of December.

The entities

- Saudi Fund for Development is the Saudi lender financing the three projects, which disburses directly to suppliers, contractors and consultants rather than to the borrowing government. - St Vincent and the Grenadines is the borrower, with EC$170.6 million of EC$177.7 million undrawn. - Godwin Friday is the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, who gave the figures to the House of Assembly on 22 October 2026. - Carlos James is the opposition Senator who asked for the project-by-project breakdown. - Ralph Gonsalves is the former Prime Minister whose June 2023 visit to Saudi Arabia produced the facility. - Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning is the executing agency that files withdrawal applications with the fund. - Unity Labour Party is the party that negotiated and signed all three agreements before losing office in November 2025. - New Democratic Party is the party that won the November 2025 election and inherited the portfolio. - House of Assembly is the parliament to which the figures were given.

What the title card says

- Headline: St Vincent has drawn 1.9 per cent of EC$177.7 million in Saudi loans, and EC$43 million of it expires on 31 December. - Total signed across three agreements: EC$177.7 million. - Total spent: EC$3,394,702.04, which is 1.91 per cent. - Total unspent: EC$170.6 million. - Agreements closing on 31 December 2026: two, worth about EC$43 million. - Days remaining when the figures were published: 57. - Terms: 20 years, five-year grace, 2 per cent fixed. - Counterpart funding required of the government: EC$24.3 million. - Date construction was expected to start, on the signing government's own published schedule: October 2024.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much of the Saudi Fund money has St Vincent actually spent?

EC$3,394,702.04 of EC$177.7 million, which is 1.91 per cent. EC$170.6 million is unspent, across three agreements signed between May 2023 and April 2024. Prime Minister Godwin Friday gave the figures to the House of Assembly on 22 October 2026.

Why has the money not been drawn down?

The Saudi Fund for Development does not pay loan proceeds into the government's account. It pays suppliers, contractors and consultants directly, against withdrawal applications filed by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. Work must be under way before anything can be drawn, so the constraint is contract award rather than funding.

What happens on 31 December 2026?

Two agreements close, the EC$26.9 million for cultural and artistic hubs at Bellevue, Troumaca and Petit Bordel, and the EC$16.2 million for the South Rivers health centre. About EC$43 million between them is undrawn. The government has begun asking the lender for extensions.

What are the terms of the loans?

Twenty years, with a five-year grace period, at two per cent fixed annual interest, according to the account published by the Unity Labour Party administration that negotiated them. The government also committed EC$24.3 million of counterpart funding.

Did the Saudi Fund impose a condition St Vincent would not accept?

Nothing on the public record says so. The reasons given in Parliament are the fund's direct-disbursement method, the state the projects were in when the present government took office in November 2025, and that government's own decision to rework the cultural hub project.