21004 NEWS ABOUT WORLD BANK GROUP SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISE INITIATIVES Public Disclosure Authorized Vol. 1, No. 8 September 2000 Building a Local SME Lender The National Bank of Samoa Thepeople of Samoa are great travelers, but IN BRIEFIhardly by choice. Indeed, nearly half of all Samoans live and work in New Zealand, Australia Although one of its region s best- or the United States. performing economies, tiny Samoa had no locally owned private It is because they see few alternatives to leaving Public Disclosure Authorized commercial banks until 1995. their tiny South Pacific homeland in search of Since then the National Bank opportunity.The money they send back heavily of Samoa (NBS) has become a subsidizes their nation's largely subsistence econ- critical player in the local business omy. In short, people are Samoa's leading export. community, successfully targeting SMEs too small to attract foreign Unlike most export commodities, however, lenders. The IFC-managed South Samoans return on vacation as often as funds P2 racificProject Facility (SPPF) will allow. Saddened family members talk about has,2 provided extensive support for the day when parting is no longer a financial NBS, in the process establishing necessity. a template for commercial banking 12prrojects in other small Pacific Public Disclosure Authorized projects in other small Pacific Most Samoans would much prefer the chance to Island nations. stay home and run a small farm, store or fishing SMEFACTS is a publication of the World Bank Group SMEDepartment. National Bank of Samoa: S2i Island country'sfirst locally Director ~ 2owned bank. A recent Public Disclosure Authorized Hrorld Roseatn 86IFC-supported capital increasehas allowedit to For Information Contact: mincreaselending by 10%. Rob Wright [email protected] Tel. # 202 473 7997 Fax # 202 522 3742 boat instead. This is something that local entre- preneur Eddie Meredith and his family first Samoaat a Glance began wanting to support in the 1970s. "At the time, our people had no choice but to deal with Population:165,000 foreign-owned banks and they simply weren't Population 165,000 interested in small business," Meredith says. I Population persq. ki: 59.5 suppose we were driven by nationalistic spirit and Population growth: 0.5% thought that we needed to take concerted action." Life expectancy: 69 years GNP per capita: $1,060 Today, Meredith is the chairman of the National Bank of Samoa (NBS), his country's only locally Source:World Bank owned private bank. Aided by the Samoan gov- ernment's sweeping private sector-oriented eco- nomic reform program, the ambitions of his fami- Turnaround ly and their local partners were realized in 1995. This might have been unthinkable as recently as "The Samoan government initiated the NBS the mid-1980s, when Australia and other donor project by enabling a private consortium to buy a nations classified Samoa as one of several island banking license," says Denise Aldous of the countries "likely to remain forever aid-depend- South Pacific Project Facility (SPPF), which ent." Matters worsened from there. Two major helped the bank raise critical financing. "The cyclones in the early 1990's seriously damaged government has a vested interest in the project's Samoa's already-fragile economy. A disease success as it foresees a very real need for locally which attacked taro (one of its few agricultural led competition to the foreign banks and their exports) and the near collapse of the national focus on the wealthier sectors of the community." carrier, Polynesian Airlines, compounded the nation's problems. Nevertheless, the government With a resident population of just 165,000 peo- fought back with a series of policies intended to ple, Samoa is one of the world's smallest nations. stabilize the economy, make the public sector And with a staff of just 40 people, the NBS is, by more efficient and transparent and bolster growth world standards, a very small business. "The in the private sector. Government expenditure has entire bank is roughly the same size as a subur- since been reduced, the banking sector overhauled ban bank branch in the United States, but given and the agricultural, fishing and tourism sectors the challenges it faced five years ago it has been reinvigorated. The Samoan economy is expected surprisingly successful," says Aldous. to grow by up to 4% this year. So successful that by 1997, the NBS had exceed- IFC's involvement in a range of projects in Samoa ed its own growth predictions and was unable to has grown out of a close working relationship meet the capital reserve requirements set by the between the SPPF and the government of Prime Central Bank of Samoa. Promoting itself as "a Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi. Both are Samoan bank for Samoans" had given the NBS a committed to private sector growth and both greater than expected edge over its foreign com- understand the unique challenges facing the petitors. "We were loaning 200 to 2000 tala region's remote and under developed nations. (approximately $60 to $600) to finance a wed- "Here in Samoa a project worth a quarter to a ding, to support a village level craft business or a half a million dollars is a very big investment," food stall," says Meredith. "We were expanding Sailele says. So, we have the SPPF which is very quickly and we needed capital support so we regionally based and has people who understand turned to IFC." the way to do business here and are able to work effectively in these countries." 2 SMEFACTS A decade ago, IFC and partner governments With the SPPF assistance, the NBS has now established the Sydney-based SPPF in order to become a solid small retail bank, taking deposits assist small businesses like the NBS in the and making loans of up to 600,000 Tala ($200,000) region's isolated and under developed micro- to Samoan SMEs. It has thus become a local states. Since 1990, the Facility has been helping financing source for other SPPF-supported com- island entrepreneurs evaluate and structure invest- panies such as Tafaoata 0 Samoa Ltd, a small ment opportunities, prepare business plans and snack food manufacturer with big expansion plans obtain project finance. "The development of small which include a move into export markets. The business really is a very important part of the SPPF recently supplied the technical know-how economic development of the whole region," the firm needed to increase sales volumes of its explains the facility's regional manager, Graeme taro and banana chips, an important precursor in Rothwell. "In most countries there is no large obtaining additional financial support from both business. There is just small business." the NBS and a private equity fund for the Pacific Island states run by the government of New The Samoan bank's management first sought Zealand. assistance in 1997, contracting with the SPPF under its established fee structure for help in Eddie Meredith believes the future for the NBS is preparing a detailed business plan that could one of steady growth. "Eventually we would like attract investment for the necessary capital to branch out into other investment areas," he increase from IFC or another source. As a result says, "for example, we would like to perhaps of its work, in early 1999 IFC approved a lease fishing boats inline with the government's $100,000 capital injection into the NBS, which strategy for national growth." U today has a $4.4 million loan portfolio-tiny by international standards, but enough to make a considerable difference in its island economy. As another part of this process in 1998, the SPPF realized that in order to remain "commercially viable" the NBS would need not only capital but also a set of processes and procedures along with A banking skills of the kind found in financial institutions in much larger markets. A five-year program of institutional strengthening was thus launched with an initial $58,000 drawn from the New Zealand government's IFC trust fund. While focusing on policy development across all aspects of banking both local and international, the pro- gram includes training and the development of training modules for everyone from NBS board members to customer service staff. "We haven't set out to turn these people into Wall Street X bankers, but they do need assistance in the area of credit risk management and their processes and Client Focus: SMEs are key to Samoa's procedures did need strengthening," says Aldous. economy - and to NBS'strategy 3.