Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, K. Peter Turnquest, announced in The House of Assembly yesterday  the  Minnis administration’s move to secure insurance in the event of significant damage from future hurricanes through the Caribbean Catastrophic Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF).

According to the DPM, this coverage would cost $3.4 million dollars. 

“CCRIF has provided new coverage for government infrastructure, based on three island segments in order to cater to our unique archipelagic nation.

“So what they’ve done is that we were able to convince them that we should separate The Bahamas into three zones.

“The southern zone which is very sparsely populated, does not have a lot of public infrastructure, the central part which includes New Providence, that has a lot of infrastructure, and then the northern part which includes Abaco, Grand Bahama, and Bimini which has slightly less than what we have here in the capital.”

The DPM added that the previous administration canceled the country’s coverage with CCRIF which he says deprived the country of a significant pay out for related hurricane matters. 

“Rather than trying to renegotiate the policy as we have done, they canceled it wholesale. 

“Rather than going to CCRIP and saying “hey, this doesn’t work for us, give us a program that works,” they took it out, and left us exposed. 

“This program that we have negotiated with CCRIP gives us the best possible coverage and the opportunity for return if in fact the country encounters an unthinkable, catastrophic event,” said the Minister.