SPBD takes legal action against former General Manager

By Lagi Keresoma/

Apia, Samoa – 7 March 2025 – The South Pacific Business Development (SPBD) Incorporated has taken legal action against its former General Manager and a former employee.

The matter was mentioned in Court last week.

SPBD current General Manager, Paula Fa’u said the matter is with their legal team and will not comment further.

“Let them (lawyers) do the job,” he said.

$13 million is allegedly lost from SPBD local funds under the previous administration.

Fa’u, a Tongan took over leadership of the Samoan SPBD administration in July last year after SPBD owner Greg Casagrande fired the former General Manager.

Fa’u also denied that SPBD profits has declined following changes at the organizations’ top administration.

Effective communication between SPBD & clients
Fa’u and administration is focusing on developing effective communications between SPDB and the clients and have embarked a series of trainings for all its centres.

“We bring them together to discuss some of the issues raised by different centres and to remind them of our projects. The training is a platform where we can talk to them about what we need from centres and listen to them,” said Fa’u.

He said after 25 years since the establishment of SPBD, there are still questions raised that need to be addressed.

Some of the trainings in the pipeline include business training, how to maintain a business, financial management and building capacity for centre leaders.

“We are also looking at conducting a financial education training with the focus on training clients how to record income and expenses and make good decisions,” he said.

An SPBD meeting early this week.

Challenges within centres
Asked about the common challenges faced by centres, Fa’u said family members opting for seasonal work abroad leaving the mother to operate the business on her own.

The other challenge is the cultural practise within the villages.

“This is my first meeting with the clients since I arrived in Samoa and I want to make them understand we exist to improve the quality of life through the services we provide,” he said.

His preference is to go to the villages and meet the community rather than the client’s coming to them.

“One of our focus is to make them understand that taking a loan and investing in businesses is to help them improve,” said Fa’u.

Centres closed – New ones open

Currently there are 256 centres in Upolu alone.

Although he could not give a number, he confirmed that several centres have been closed and new ones open.

SPBD wants to focus on quality centres and ensure that they understand that the purpose of the loan is for a business to support and generate financial stability for the family.

“The clients are mostly unemployed women and they need to be trained and motivated to want to do it,” said Fa’u.

Changes within SPBD
Fa’u said there have been small changes within the operation and administration of SPBD which include existing policies and procedures to be followed effectively.

There is also a change in repayment of loans which Fa’u said should be paid to the centres and the office will collect from, saving the clients money and time to travel to the main office to pay.

The loan term was for 52 weeks and the clients makes a double repayment in the end of the year.

“We change that to only 50 weeks as there is no need for a double repayment,” he said.

Business & white loans
When asked about the difference between the business and family loans, Fa’u said SPBD offers only business, education and white goods loan.

Asked to elaborate on white goods loans, he said it offers clients a chance if they want to buy a washing machine, oven or anything for the house.

“We partnered with the Samoa Stationery and Books (SSAB) where the clients pick their items from SSAB, give us the invoice, we pay and the clients repay to SPBD,” said Fa’u.

Asked about the interest rates on these loans, Fa’u said “no comment.”