Government is to stand as guarantor for a portion of an approximately $12 million loan from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) to the University of the West Indies (UWI) for the purpose of financing its regional digital transformation project.
In a resolution before Parliament, Government is seeking to guarantee $2 million of the total loan amount.
The University of the West Indies (Guarantee of Loans) Act makes provision for the Barbados Government to guarantee the payment of principal and interest in respect of loans obtained by the UWI for infrastructure work at the Cave Hill Campus.
According to section three of the Act, “The Government may by a resolution of both Houses of Parliament guarantee the payment of the principal and interest due in respect of loans granted to the University, subject to such terms and conditions as the Government may think fit; but such amount shall not exceed the sum of $100 million, exclusive of the interest payable thereon.”
Under the terms of the loan the interest rate is fixed at 0.075 per cent per year.
The amount is split into two – $4 million as Special Fund Resources and $8 million as Ordinary Capital Resources. There is a moratorium of three years for both.
The UWI will have a term of 30 years, inclusive of the grace period, to repay the Special Fund Resources amount and 20 years for the Ordinary Capital Resources amount.
The Government’s $2 million guarantee is on the Special Fund Resources portion of the loan.
As part of its Triple A Strategic Plan 2017-2022, the UWI has identified digital transformation as an objective.
According to the UWI, the digital transformation will enhance the learning institution’s regional value proposition by integrating its geographically distributed operations to achieve larger technology-enabled economies of both scale and scope, with increased and more equitable service, access and satisfaction levels across all jurisdictions of the university.
Headquartered in Jamaica, the regional tertiary education institution also has campuses in Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and Antigua and Barbuda.
The model of the digital transformation programme is focused on what officials of the institution say are five mission-critical operations across the university system – academics, knowledge resource, technology, finance and administration.
“It is about consolidating our current structures and processes to maximise our collaborative synergies, agility, effectiveness and efficiency, so that we work smarter and deliver greater value to all our stakeholders,” said the UWI.
The project, which is scheduled for completion in August 2023, is taking place in four phases – discovery, definition, development and delivery.
