The National Insurance Board (NIB) and the growth and development of the modern Bahamas

In its 40 Years, NIB has Fueled National Growth

By Gena Gibbs:


NASSAU, The Bahamas – In his address of the National Insurance Board’s 40^th Anniversary Church Service at Evangelistic Temple on Sunday, Minister of Labour, National Insurance and the Public Service, the Hon. Shane Gibson illustrated the significant role NIB has played in the overall growth and development of The Bahamas.

He expounded saying, “we’ve not only assisted with the benefits paid to contributors, we’ve assisted in building dozens of clinics all over The Bahamas.  We’ve assisted in constructing many Government facilities.  We’ve assisted with unemployment benefits.  And we are now on the way to introducing a National Health Insurance scheme, which would mean universal healthcare for all Bahamians, throughout the length and breadth of The Bahamas.”

Acknowledging the significant milestone of 40 years, Minister Gibson said: “We pause to reflect on and access the National Insurance Board as an Institution, as a movement, and as a foundation pillar of our modern Bahamas.”

NIB was created to administer the country’s social security programe, and first opened its doors on October 7, 1974.   Minister Gibson outlined its history and development since then, noting that Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Perry Christie, also present at the service, was the third Minister of National Insurance, and among the first Ministers appointed to National Insurance during the period of 1977 to 1982, just three years after the program was introduced.

Mr. Gibson stated: “In the historical context of The Bahamas, this was the immediate post Independence period when expectations in the social, economic and political context were very high.  It was a time when the Government of the Bahamas had to be seen to be delivering on the promises and aspirations that drove the movement to Independence.

“But as history has proven, time and again, political freedom gained from a struggle is not an end in itself, but rather a means to an end.  In The Bahamas, we dreamt of and aspired to education for all of our people, access to basic healthcare, non-discrimination in employment opportunities, and social mechanisms that would allow and give us some measure of dignity when things become rough, and a normal means to earn an income uninterrupted.”

Minister Gibson said that to its credit, the Bahamas Government had seen the need for a comprehensive system of social security, and a small group of persons in The Bahamas was charged with developing a social security scheme that would provide some acceptable form of income replacement for workers of the country, and their dependents, from the cradle to the grave.

“And this work was completed with the passage of the National Insurance legislation in 1972.  I think the point of then and now would best illustrate the phenomenal growth of the scheme.  At the start of the various programs under the National Insurance, short-term benefits were paid at a maximum rate of $54 per week, long-term benefits were paid at a rate of $26 per month, and funeral benefits, one-time payment, was $200,” said Minister Gibson.

“Old age, non-contributory pension, which was paid when insufficient or no contributions had been made, was $26 per month.  At the end of its first three years, National Insurance had collected some $58 Million in contributions; had paid out over $6 Million, as Benefits assistance; and had a reserve fund of some $52 Million.

Minister Gibson said that no one at the time could imagine how significant NIB would grow to become over the years.

“Today, in contrast to its humble, but ambitious beginnings, NIB at the end of its last financial year 2013 had accumulated reserves of some $1.6 billion.  Its contribution income for the same year was reported at $229 million.  While its benefits expenditure for 2013 was some $222 million,” said Minister Gibson.

“It also realized an investment of some $86.3 million during the period.  Additionally, maximum monthly long-term benefits and weekly short-term benefits payments have increased on average of 63-fold and seven-fold respectively, since 1972.” 

For its achievements, Minister Gibson congratulated the employees of NIB, “in particular those long serving employees who would have made a significant contribution over the years.  And even though persons may say they were well rewarded, I can tell you they have made many sacrifices in making sure that you get the quality service that you do get from NIB.  And so we thank them and we congratulate them.”

Minister Gibson then introduced Prime Minister Christie as one of the most socially conscious Prime Ministers in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas over the last 40 years, who has been there from the beginning and like NIB, is also celebrating 40 years serving the Bahamian people.

Senior Pastor, Rev. Dr. Vaughan Cash welcomed NIB Board members, executive management, honourees, and staff attending the service to launch National Insurance Week.

October 07, 2014

Bahamas.gov.bs

Bahamas brain drain and stagnating economic growth

Bahamas Losing 2/3 Of 'Best And Brightest'

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Almost two-thirds of college and university-educated Bahamians have moved abroad to seek jobs in developed countries, costing this nation a sum equivalent to 4.4 per cent of annual gross domestic product (GDP).

The so-called ‘brain drain’ was highlighted in a newly-released Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) report, which noted that 61 per cent of tertiary-educated Bahamians had left this nation for jobs in Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) member countries.

The study, ‘Is there a Caribbean Sclerosis’, which attempts to determine why economic growth in the Bahamas and five other regional nations has been stagnating, effectively suggests this nation is losing its ‘best and brightest’ minds to other economies.

This, in turn, has major implications for the productivity, innovation and creativity of Bahamian firms and the wider economy, all areas where it is suggested this nation is not as competitive as it might be.

The IDB report’s authors, Inder Ruprah, Karl Melgarejo, and Ricardo Sierra, summed it up thus: “The Caribbean countries have lost more than 70 per cent of their labour force with more than 12 years of schooling through emigration.

“This is worrisome because one of the few non-controversial stylised facts in economic growth literature is the positive contribution of education to economic growth. Thus, migration affects the Caribbean countries’ ability to generate economic growth and jobs.”

The IDB study pegs the combined impact of this ‘brain drain’, plus the money spent on these Bahamians’ education, at 4.4 per cent of GDP. With Bahamian GDP currently estimated at around $8 billion, the ‘dollar value’ of that 4.4 per cent is around $350 million.

The Bahamas, though, is far from alone in the ‘brain drain’ problem. And, in comparison to regional peers, it is among those that suffers the least loss, only Surinam (at 48 per cent) losing fewer of its tertiary-educated workers.

In contrast, Jamaica and Guyana both see more than 85 per cent of their college/university graduates migrate abroad for work. And the Bahamas also suffers the least loss in terms of GDP impact and the number of secondary school graduates (10 per cent) who head abroad seeking work.

The IDB study gives no explanation as to why 61 per cent of Bahamian tertiary graduates head abroad, although the likely reasons include the fact many of them stay overseas when their college degrees are completed; the narrowness of the Bahamian economy and opportunities at home; and a lack of information about openings in the Bahamas.

Still, the findings have worrying implications for the Bahamas, as they indicate an entire generation of entrepreneurs and top-level managers may be heading abroad, never to return. And with Baha Mar set to create 5,000 extra jobs, and other major investment projects coming on stream, this nation needs all the top-quality labour it can get.

To reinvigorate Caribbean economies, the ID study suggested they “reorient trade in goods and services towards growing niches”, namely faster-growing countries with rapidly expanding middle classes.

Taking Brazil as an example, the authors suggested that had it been the Bahamas’ main trading partner during the 2008-2012 recession, this nation would have seen a 4.5 percentage point difference in its annual growth level.

“The average increase in annual growth during the Great Recession would have been 2.1 per cent for the Bahamas,” the IDB study said. “Over the next six years, the simulation exercise shows that the increase could reach 0.8 per cent for the Bahamas.”

The Bahamas is currently targeting Brazil for increased financial services, trade and tourism business, and the IDB study suggested that instead of an average 0.4 per cent GDP contraction in 2008-2012, this nation could have enjoyed a 1.68 per cent growth rate had the Latin American state - not the US - been its main trading partner.

And, in the same scenario for 2013-2018, the authors project that the Bahamas would enjoy a 2.88 per cent average GDP growth rate instead of 2.3 per cent. Per capita would also be slightly higher by around $200 per person.

Noting just how badly the Bahamas was impacted by the 2008 recession, the IDB study said this nation collectively lost 40 per cent of its GDP between 2008-2012, based on 2007 growth levels. Only Trinidad fared worse.

And the authors also added their voices to those expressing uncertainty over whether Baha Mar would grow or split the high-end visitor market with Atlantis come 2015.

“The total investment in Baha Mar is estimated to be about US$3.5 billion, and the hotels in the development are expected to increase the number of available hotel rooms by 2,000,” the IDB study said.

“However, being successful will require a substantial increase in the airlift to the island, plus a policy of diversification of tourist source countries such that the Baha Mar represents additional tourism rather than a diversion from the existing hotel complex, Atlantis.”

The IDB report also warned that economic growth and competitiveness in the Bahamas and wider Caribbean was being undermined by “special interest groups”, who were using “rent seeking” and other tactics to redistribute social wealth.

“By enlarging their slice of the pie (real GDP), these interest groups reduce the enlargement (economic growth) of the total pie, which in turn reduces total social gains,” the IDB study said. “This happens by influencing policy.”

Small, stable Caribbean societies such as the Bahamas fostered the creation and embedding of these “growth-retarding special interest groups”, it argued.

As a result, there is “a lower level of public trust of politicians, more unproductive rent-seeking, and a greater degree of wastefulness in government spending.

“Government officials engage in more diversion of public funds, show greater favouritism, and Caribbean businesspersons make more irregular payments and bribes. The only area where Caribbean tourism-based countries are at the same level as their [small island states]counterparts is judicial independence,” the IDB study said.

“Thus, the very feature that the Caribbean is proud of - political stability -may have created the conditions for and sustained an alliance against growth. In other words, Caribbean states are good for (some) businesspersons but not necessarily good for business.

“Thus, the difference in growth between Caribbean countries and other small economies could be due to Caribbean governments not being as good for business.”

June 16, 2014

Tribune 242