St Kitts and Nevis CIU to give EC$10,000 grant to 25 micro businesses

St Kitts and Nevis: A grant of EC$10,000 will be given to 25 small businesses under a newly launched “New Micro CBI Grant” initiative of the Citizenship by Investment Unit of St Kitts and Nevis. The initiative is aimed at supporting micro business owners and strengthening communities.

The CIU is collaborating with First Federal Capital Union to launch the programme which will be rolled out into phases. In the first phase, a grant of EC$10,000 and professional training will be provided to selected micro business owners.

In order to give investment into the hands of the people, the CIU has designed the initiative to boost entrepreneurship and benefit the local communities.

Objective of Micro CBI Grant

The first and foremost objective of the grant is to provide sustainable financing to small businesses who will promote local products of St Kitts and Nevis. It will strengthen the communities and the priorities will also be given to women-led businesses, aiming to empower women in the country.

The preference will be given to the businesses who are aligned with the Sustainable Island State Agenda of the government of St Kitts and Nevis. For the selections of the companies, a specific criteria is set by the CIU as the grants will be given to the owners who would not otherwise qualify for grant funding.

Grants will be awarded to independently owned and operated micro or small businesses, with fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover of less than $60,000EC. Funding must be used for business expenditure only including raw materials, staffing, equipment, marketing etc.

Procedure for selection

In the selection procedure, St Kitts and Nevis CIU announced that busines owners must have a valid business license. They should have micro businesses such as snackette, landscaping businesses.

In the selection process, the companies are required to have a 12 months track record and have not been given any government grant in the last 12 months. All the accounts into which funds will be deposited must be held at First Federal and the preferences will be given to those businesses that can demonstrate alignment with the government’s Sustainable Island State Agenda.

How to apply

The companies are required to submit their application via a brief Google Form which will include the details about their businesses, operational history, licences. They will have to upload the copy of the business licence and/or food handling licence.

In addition to that, there must be a Grant Proposal which will include:

●      Description of how the funds will be used

●      Explanation of why the business should be selected for the grant.

The business owners can make their referrals via the same process. The final selection will be made by Cabinet, CIU Board and leadership team. The deadline for the submission of the application is October 15, 2025. Businesses can submit their application through an email address ciugrants@sknciu.com.

Successful applicants will be notified no later than Friday 25 October via email or phone. The applicants must have to provide a preferred contact method when you submit your application. Due to the anticipated high volume of applications only successful applicants will be contacted.