Happy morning to cruise port shareholders, today is payday for the more than 3,000 Bahamian shareholders who are sharing in the incredible success of the port and participating in the wealth creation of our beloved Bahamaland. A 21% dividend pay rate is exceptional, onward to even greater heights this year!

The vat on food should be and could be ZERO except for the greedy PLP politicians who wasted $58 million on extravagant travel. Shameful.

These eggs came from neither of those countries. But yes, the public should be told where they came from, why the big secret?

A huge problem. Two months into the new year and clients still cannot access their accounts online☹️.

Taxpayers in this country are getting ripped off! Greedy old people squeezing out the young. This double dipping (receiving a salary and pension) should be illegal.

How much did we get paid? Govt ducking that question.

Another year, another missed annual profit target for Fidelity. This is the third consecutive year that has happened, perhaps it has been 5 years or more, we shareholders have been so numbed to poor results we lose track. Meanwhile CIBC and Bank of the Bahamas had record profits last year! This great pontificator has been a specialist in failure. At least 5 years plus of every quarter promising a share split that has never materialized. Can’t believe anything he says anymore. Year after year of profit targets missed, no share split. A specialist in failure. Last year he compared Fidelity to a Volkswagen and said after years of poor results he looked under the hood to figure out what was wrong. What he failed to realize was that he was given the keys to a Ferrari not a Volkswagen when he became CEO! More bush mechanic than banker he has no idea how to manage this bank properly. Hopefully the board comes to its senses and exercises it’s fiduciary duty soon, many more years of this ineptitude and the current Volkswagen will be a jalopy.

Why the need to send nine people? Could not two (a cameraman and journalist) suffice? Seems a HUGE waste of taxpayer dollars!

We need more innovative thinking outside the box on taxes, particularly on generating new revenue from non Bahamian sources. For example the previous FNM administration generated $35 million a year from new overflight fees. This fiscal year the current administration will generate an extra $35 million from increased departure tax on cruise visitors, many millions in taxing private cruise island sales and services (vat) for the first time, $150mill plus from new 15% minimum tax on large corporations in the Bahamas. Don’t just take the lazy way out and increase vat on Bahamians, we need more new foreign revenue streams so vat can be lowered! If the govt can find just an additional $30mill this way, vat on all food can be lowered to ZERO, with no negative impact on the budget.

There is already a cap on the interest rates charged by commercial banks for consumer loans in the Bahamas. The cap albeit very high has been in place for many years.