Afreximbank Receives Free Land for Trade Center, Hotel, and Offices Construction in Barbados

African Export Import Bank (Afreximbank) will be getting the lands at Jemmott’s Lane, St Michael, the site of the old General Hospital, for the construction of the bank’s trade centre, hotel and offices, free of cost.

Minister of Housing and Lands Dwight Sutherland said last Thursday in the House of Assembly, the 2.037 hectares (5.11 acres) given to Afrexim, which is headquartered in Cairo, Egypt, was about “strategy”.

But Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne said he could not support the measure.

“The construction of its headquarters will bring substantial economic activity to Barbados. And the fact of Barbados being the only office outside of the African continent speaks volume to us,” Sutherland said.

“Reconnecting with Africa culturally and economically is essential for Barbados’ long-term stability.”

Sutherland said there were many arguments the Government could use “to justify giving land to the Afrexim bank for construction of the trade centre, hotel and offices”.

The minister said Throne’s criticism of the decision to vest the land to Africans for free was “unfair”.

“There is a geo-global . . . geopolitical strategy that we have. Hosting the African trade centre can diversify Barbados’ international partnership and lessen reliance on the Western . . . economic systems.

“It is critical because of what is happening in the world and when we look at economic and business justification for vesting this land free . . . the Africa trade centre would attract businesses, create new jobs, stimulate economic activity in Barbados, especially in areas of construction, tourism and trade sectors,” he said, adding that business executives from Africa bring with them foreign exchange.

Sutherland added that what existed now was a dilapidated site from the first hospital that was built in 1844, with the hospital “fully closed back in the 2000s. It was left there in shambles. There was no better opportunity . . . than to vest this land in the African Export Import Bank”.

In response, Thorne said the vesting for free of these state lands should not be centred on “political, and more particularly, geopolitical arguments”.

“It is national interests. This is a very interesting time and not for the first time . . . the alienation of lands to foreign persons and foreign entities has been contentious. I would want to introduce a legal perspective that while it is not the first time that lands are vesting free of charge – the document says free of cost – I have not seen the articles of association, I haven’t seen the memorandum, so I don’t know if the Barbados Government is a member of the Afrexim Bank, so that if it is a member of that bank, if it is a shareholder, part-owner, then the precedent is complete.