By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

The MP for North Andros and the Berry Islands yesterday issued a "plea" for intervention to resolve his constituency's banking crisis with pensioners now forced to fly to Nassau to access funds and conduct financial services business.

Leonardo Lightbourne, addressing the House of Assembly during the 2023-2024 Budget debate, said: “I would like to plead on behalf of the people of North Andros and the Berry Islands for an intervention and the presence of a local bank. An ATM (automatic teller) machine cannot meet the needs of the people. The North and Central Andros community needs a physical presence desperately.

“This is indeed a pressing issue that must be looked into urgently. Additionally, this is important to economic building and attracting investments in these islands. The people have suffered long enough and we need a bank now.”

Mr Lightbourne said the absence of a physical bank branch in his constituency has forced some pensioners to travel to Nassau to conduct transactions, slicing their fixed income in half. Residents also frequently spend hours commuting to the ATM only for it to be out of service.

He added: “The constituents on pensions have to travel to Nassau because there are no banks. What they are actually receiving in their monthly pension is less than half [of what they are entitled to] because they have to purchase plane tickets, find accommodations, transportation etc.

“There is no physical presence of a bank in North or Central Andros, so residents have to drive more than an hour only to find out that ATM is not operational in some cases, which is a major inconvenience and disruption not only for the residents, but a major disruption for commerce.”

The North Andros Chamber of Commerce hosted a Town Hall meeting last week to discuss options for solving the area's banking woes. Donna Pickstock, North Andros chief councillor, told Tribune Business: “I know that banking as we know it, the brick and mortar banking, the face-to-face is quickly becoming obsolete and online banking is the way the world is going now.

"All transactions are transitioning to being done online. But we need a bank here in North Andros, if only once or twice a week, because we still have businesses here and the elderly who want or need that in-person banking. It’s a challenge to the businesses here. I think over the past few months revenue has declined.”

Ms Pickstock added that the current ATM is old and there are challenges obtaining the parts to repair it. She called for at least an additional ATM machine to service the residents of North and Central Andros.

“We only have one ATM machine here and I think that is becoming obsolete; they have difficulties finding parts for it," she said. "They need to put more ATMs in North Andros, at least two, because we also have persons from Central Andros coming here to do their banking.”

Reverend Raymond Neilly said the lack of access to banking facilities is impacting the business community and parishioners’ ability to pay offerings. He added that as a senior citizen he has to endure standing in line for hours, sometimes with the machine going out of service, before he can conduct a transaction.

He said: “The ATM is up now, and then by tomorrow it's down, and it’s the only banking facility that we have - an ATM that is not functioning properly, sometimes for a week. We can’t access our funds at all. We have money in the bank but we cannot access our funds.

“It’s impacting the business places, it’s impacting the offerings in the churches, its impacting our children going to school and I, for example, am a senior citizen and I have stood in the line at the ATM.. one day for two-and-a-half hours and it went down.”

Reverend Neilly called for the Government to assist in resolving these issues, and warned that residents will protest if no action is taken.

He said: “We are saying here in North Andros that it's supposed to be one Bahamas, that we are one nation, and why should we because of our population have to suffer in this kind of way? We believe that the same way the Government subsidises Bahamasair to fly to certain islands because of their small population, we believe that we are entitled to proper banking facilities; modern banking facilities on North Andros just like other parts of The Bahamas.

“We are standing together as a people saying that government must help us. That is what the Government is there to do. Yes, we can try our best to solve our problems, but surely the elected officials are to make their presence known and they are to hear the cries of the people, and not just to hear their cries but to respond to our cries and let us know what are you going to do about our banking situation “

“And we want concrete answers. What is going to happen to us in North Andros? To whom do we appeal if we cannot appeal to those elected to represent us? It is critical here, and otherwise there is going to be a massive protest from the people of North Andros.”