SLGP NBS

pending

The proposed investment consists of an unfunded Risk Sharing Facility (RSF) with a maturity of up to 8 years in an amount of up to US$4 million equivalent in Samoan Tala that may be committed in two equal tranches. The RSF will cover up to 50% of the risk on a portfolio of small and medium enterprises (SME) loans to be originated by National Bank of Samoa (the Bank), including loans to women-owned/led SME (WSME) and SMEs in the agriculture sector, in an amount of up to US$8 million equivalent to help the Bank scale up its relevant lending portfolios in Samoa. The RSF is proposed to be processed under IFC’s Small Loan Guarantee Program (SLGP), which is supported by the IDA18 IFC-MIGA Private Sector Window’s Blended Finance Facility. Proposed investment will be accompanied by a trade finance guarantee facility of up to US$2 million under IFC’s Global Trade Finance Program (GTFP) with tenor of up to 12 months to support cross border trade financing for local exporters/importers.In addition to the RSF and GTFP components, the investment is under consideration to potentially be supported by the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) in the form of a performance-based incentive (PBI), should the Bank achieve strong growth in lending to WSMEs. We-Fi is a collaborative partnership among 14 governments, six multilateral development banks and other public and private sector stakeholders, hosted by the World Bank Group. It seeks to address financial and non-financial constraints faced by women-owned small and medium enterprises around the world.  IDA PSW BFF and We-Fi’s support would enable IFC to rapidly roll out a program of risk sharing facilities to reach underserved SME segment of the market including women SMEs/VSEs that are otherwise not commercially bankable.