The Caribbean Unity Dividend Part 4

The Caribbean Unity Dividend

Part 4

Issue No 18

In the first three parts of this series, In Part 1 we looked at why CWI and UWI deserve stable funding, Part 2 assessed how other nations have done it, and Part 3 explores what a Caribbean Unity Levy or Compact could look like.
Now comes the real test: is this even feasible?

So let’s strip away emotion and look at the one number corporations can’t argue with…. profit.
Once you see the figures, the conversation stops being about possibility. It becomes about responsibility.

Here’s what we know from just three companies across three major Caribbean industries:

Companies plan their contributions based on what’s financially sustainable, and profit is usually the clearest indicator of that capacity. So if we want to understand whether a regional levy or compact can realistically work, profit is the fairest place to start. Across three companies — CIBC Caribbean, Angostura Holdings, and Caribbean Airlines — the combined profit base is US$434.36 million. From there, the percentage scenarios become easier to frame.

Lets start with 0.25 percent, the figure that sits comfortably between impact and feasibility. Applied to that profit base, it generates just over US$1.08 million annually from three companies alone. It’s a small lift for each contributor but a meaningful pool for the institutions it supports.

Even at 0.1 percent, the politically safe option, the collective contribution still reaches roughly US$434,000 per year, again, from only three entities. If you extended this across a modest sample of profitable businesses in the region, the total would scale quickly into the multimillions.

And even at 0.01 percent, a number so small it barely registers on a balance sheet, the combined contribution still exceeds US$43,000, which is enough to fund specific programmes outright, scholarships, coaching certification modules, or a joint UWI–CWI pilot initiative. The point is simple: when the base is broad, even the lowest percentages produce tangible value. When the percentages rise slightly, the outcomes become transformational.

This isn’t about squeezing corporations.
It’s about aligning regional identity with regional responsibility.

Cricket makes the Caribbean visible.
UWI makes the Caribbean credible.
Every large company operating in the region benefits from those two realities.

So the question isn’t whether the Caribbean can afford to fund CWI and UWI. It’s whether we can afford not to.

When a 0.1% contribution can change the trajectory of regional sport and education, the question shifts from feasibility to urgency.
When 0.25% could generate generational change, the conversation becomes even clearer.

The Caribbean has always been rich in talent and poor in structure.
A Caribbean Unity Fund whether launched by compact or enshrined by levy is our chance to flip that script.

Community Question of the week

If a Caribbean Unity Fund collected even 0.1% from profitable regional companies, it would generate meaningful support for cricket and education. Would you support a 0.1% or 0.25% corporate contribution system across the region?

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