Samoa Finance Sector Resilience and Development Project (WB-P181456)

Countries
  • Samoa
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • World Bank (WB)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Approved
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
C
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Oct 18, 2024
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
Government of Samoa - Central Bank of Samoa / Samoa Bureau of Statistics / Ministry of Finance
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Finance
  • Law and Government
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Grant
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 21.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Project Cost (USD)
$ 21.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Bank Documents
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ WB website

Updated in EWS Mar 6, 2025

Disclosed by Bank Dec 22, 2023

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Can you contribute information about this project?
Contact the EWS Team

Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to the Bank’s website, the objective of this project is to enhance Samoa’s financial supervisory and national payment and identification systems for resilience.

The project has three components: (i) financial supervisory and payment systems implemented by CBS; (ii) identification systems implemented by the Samoa Bureau of Statistics; and (iii) project management implemented by the Ministry of Finance.

Early Warning System Project Analysis
For a project with severe or irreversible impacts to local community and natural resources, the Early Warning System Team may conduct a thorough analysis regarding its potential impacts to human and environmental rights.

The social and environmental risk of the project is rated as low.

Key social risks associated with the project include: the potential exclusion of vulnerable groups such as remote and rural residents, people with disabilities, marginalized women and girls, and those with low connectivity or technical literacy; and privacy and data protection risks, including data theft and misuse, identify fraud and discrimination.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

A proposed grant in the amount of SDR 15.6 million (US$21 million equivalent).


Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

World Bank

Rekha Reddy
Senior Financial Sector Specialist

Ji Eun Choi
Senior Digital Development Specialist

Christopher David Miller
Senior Private Sector Specialist

Borrower/Client/Recipient

Independent State of Samoa

Implementing Agencies

Ministry of Finance
Ma. Sa'oletiti Maeva Natacha Betham-Vaai
Chief Executive Officer
Maeva.BethamVaai@mof.gov.ws

Samoa Bureau of Statistics
Leota Aliielua Salani
Government Statistician
aliielua.salani@sbs.gov.ws

Central Bank of Samoa
Margaret Chan-Cheuk Tafunai
Assistant Governor
margaret.tafunai@cbs.gov.ws

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

To submit an information request for project information, you will have to create an account to access the Access to Information request form. You can learn more about this process at: https://www.worldbank.org/en/access-to-information/request-submission

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF THE WORLD BANK

The World Bank Inspection Panel is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by a World Bank-financed project. If you submit a complaint to the Inspection Panel, they may investigate to assess whether the World Bank is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. You can contact the Inspection Panel or submit a complaint by emailing ipanel@worldbank.org. Information on how to file a complaint and a complaint request form are available at: https://www.inspectionpanel.org/how-to-file-complaint

How it works

How it works