13/10/17

Cost of Antigua-Barbuda citizenship reduced to US$100,000

The cost for Antigua and Barbuda’s citizenship under the National Development Fund (NDF) option has been reduced to US$100,000, reports Caribbean News Now.

The previous required contribution was US$200,000.

The announcement was made by Prime Minister Gaston Browne who was speaking in parliament Thursday morning, the Antigua Observer reported.

He said the citizenship by investment programme (CIP) has been doing poorly this year.

According to the prime minister, over the last two months, there have only been three applications under the NDF.

This means that during that time, the NDF option only generated US$600,000 in revenue.

Browne said other countries such as Dominica have been doing extremely well with an NDF option price at US $100,000 – so Antigua and Barbuda will now do the same.

He added that Dominica’s NDF makes $50 million per month.

For Antigua and Barbuda, the real estate option will remain priced at US$400,000 and the business investment option will remain at US$ 1.5 million.

The prime minister said the 50 percent price reduction for citizenship under the NDF is necessary to earn revenue to rebuild Barbuda.

In a controversial move, St Kitts and Nevis recently reduced the required contribution for its citizenship by creating a Hurricane Relief Fund under its CIP where an applicant can get citizenship for US$150, 000.