THE founder of South Pacific Business Development (SPBD), Fiji’s biggest microfinance network, has urged Government to consider investing more into the company.
“I think investing in SPBD is the most effective way of empowering micro-entrepreneurs at the base of the economic pyramid,” American social entrepreneur Greg Casagrande said in an interview with this newspaper.
“We cannot have economic growth that is just focused on the top 10per cent of society.
“We need to have growth coming from the ground up and SPBD has been here for nearly 25 years and we are one organisation that is financially sustainable and permanently committed to serving the needs of the base of the pyramid, especially women micro-entrepreneurs.”
Mr Casagrande said putting money into microfinance groups that have no proven history of being able to provide sustained finance to base of the pyramid micro-entrepreneurs is “throwing money away”.
“I’m a believer in hand-up, not hand-out. Handouts breed dependency. Handout, even to groups that are not going to be sustainable, is wasting money. SPBD has never taken any handouts. We are looking for investment and that investment we then deploy with our members.”
SPBD, he said, has an existing financing partnership with the Fiji Development Bank (FDB).
“Fiji Development Bank lends us funds and we use those funds to grow our loan portfolio. I would love to grow that relationship.
“SPBD is financially self-sufficient. Funds that come to us don’t cover our operating costs. That’s already covered. It helps us open up in new villages, helps us grow our relationship with our existing customers, it helps us expand to new islands, put up new offices so that we can better serve the people in each community.”
Since its establishment in Fiji in December 2010, SPBD has worked with over 20,000 women micro-entrepreneurs across Fiji, provided them with over 32000 loans totaling over $100m in unsecured credit.
It currently has 7000 members.
