BASSETERRE, Saint Kitts – As the eastern Caribbean nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis moves to advance its nascent medicinal cannabis sector, the federation has turned to an experienced regional leader to address one of the industry’s most persistent hurdles: access to formal banking services.
The Saint Kitts and Nevis Medicinal Cannabis Authority announced July 17 that it has tapped Saboto Caesar, the former agriculture minister of neighboring St. Vincent and the Grenadines, to guide the development of a customized, robust banking framework for the local medicinal cannabis market. Caesar is scheduled to arrive in the twin-island federation on July 19 for a five-day consulting engagement, authority CEO Nadiv Mills confirmed in a media briefing July 15.
Caesar’s track record in regional cannabis policy makes him uniquely suited to support the project, Mills noted. He is widely recognized as the driving force behind the successful development of St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ cannabis wellness sector, including the design and rollout of that nation’s own functional medicinal cannabis banking system. That experience has already positioned St. Vincent and the Grenadines as a regional pioneer: in 2025, the country became the first member of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) to secure an export license from Germany, making it the first OECS nation to ship legal medicinal cannabis to international markets.
During his upcoming visit, Caesar will hold a series of working meetings with leaders from Saint Kitts and Nevis’ commercial banks and other financial institutions. The goal of these discussions is to identify the specific regulatory, risk management and operational challenges local lenders face when serving the licensed medicinal cannabis sector. He will also share the policy frameworks and operational best practices that allowed St. Vincent and the Grenadines to overcome similar barriers to build a stable, compliant industry.
As part of the engagement, Saint Kitts and Nevis will also introduce its new end-to-end supply chain monitoring tool to participating financial institutions. The seed-to-sale track-and-trace technology logs every transaction along the production and distribution chain, boosting transparency across the supply chain, simplifying regulatory compliance for licensed operators, and strengthening overall operational accountability for the sector. This system is expected to give financial institutions greater confidence in serving the industry by reducing compliance and reputational risk.
The engagement comes as more Caribbean nations move to formalize and expand their legal medicinal cannabis sectors, leveraging regional knowledge sharing to speed up regulatory development and reduce growing pains for new market entrants.