A sharp political clash has erupted in St. Vincent and the Grenadines over plans for a new national development bank, with Prime Minister Godwin Friday launching a blistering rebuke of Opposition Leader Ralph Gonsalves, framing the former prime minister’s criticism as evidence of the outdated governance that led to his Unity Labour Party (ULP)’s landslide defeat in November 2024’s general election.
The debate unfolded in Parliament on Tuesday, April 21, 2025, during discussion of a motion tabled by government senator Chelsea Alexander, advancing the New Democratic Party (NDP)’s campaign pledge to reestablish a national development bank. The incoming NDP government revived the proposal after the ULP shut down the country’s original development institution shortly after taking power in 2001.
Under the NDP’s plan, Alexander explained, the new national development bank will expand affordable access to development capital for small and medium-sized enterprises, small-scale producers, fisher folk, and other underserved vulnerable sectors that have long struggled to secure funding from existing fragmented financing frameworks.
Gonsalves, whose ULP held power for 25 years before the NDP’s decisive 14-1 election victory, pushed back forcefully against the proposal. He argued that the country already maintains a network of specialized, fit-for-purpose public institutions and programs that already deliver the core services the new bank is intended to provide. These include the 1960s-founded development corporation that was later restructured into the development bank his administration closed, the Bank of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the Student Loan Company, the Farmer Support Company, and targeted initiatives including the PRYME program and zero-down-payment mortgages for public servants, all introduced under his leadership.
Beyond questioning the need for a new standalone bank, Gonsalves raised serious concerns about the institution’s long-term viability. He challenged the NDP to identify a source of cheap, sustainable funding to support the bank’s preferential lending mission, warning that high borrowing costs, steep administrative overhead, and risks of rising non-performing loans could leave the project insolvent. “You may well end up with your national development bank where the funding is just not available at rates of interest and on terms to make it viable,” he told the chamber.
Friday rejected every element of Gonsalves’ argument, dismissing the opposition leader’s stance as proof of a “stunning lack of imagination” and a stubborn attachment to outdated governance models. The prime minister tied the opposition’s criticism directly to the ULP’s historic election defeat, arguing that the result was not just a routine electoral loss, but a full repudiation of the ULP’s backwards-looking approach to governing.
“You can’t govern based on simply everything that you saw in the past. You have to plan for the future,” Friday said. “And that is what we bring to the table… a fresh approach, a new way of looking at things, more creativity, more diligence, hard work and putting the people of this country first.”
The prime minister also pushed back against Gonsalves’ claim that consolidating multiple functions into one new bank would be inefficient, pointing to major flaws in the existing fragmented system that the NDP is seeking to fix. He noted that 75% of loans issued by the ULP-established Farmer Support Company currently go unrepaid, arguing that the new structure will deliver far better outcomes for public finances and beneficiaries alike. Contrary to claims that the bank would add unnecessary bureaucracy, Friday stressed that the proposal is a deliberate effort to rationalize the current patchwork of support programs, creating a single, more coherent and accountable institution to deliver development financing, rather than adding an extra layer of government.
Friday also framed the opposition’s opposition as a rejection of support for ordinary Vincentians, telling constituents: “Let the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines register this: the opposition opposes the national development bank, an institution that is there to give small business people, ordinary people, fisher folk, access to capital, to guidance so that they could build themselves up. They are against that.”
When the allocated time for private members’ motions expired at 5 p.m. Tuesday, the debate on the motion was adjourned to a future sitting of Parliament.