Too Good to Be True, Dreams Become Reality

Meet Nelly Tanga, Vanuatu

Mrs. Nelly Tanga has called Saint Michel, on the island of Santo, home for the past thirty years. She and her husband share their household with all eight of their children, aged twelve to twenty-seven, and six grandchildren, the youngest just four months old and the eldest seven. Together, the family lives in an ageing galvanised-iron house that is now slowly being renovated and rebuilt, thanks to Nelly's growing business.

Nelly completed her secondary education only as far as Year 7, when school fees became too much for her family to afford. Determined to support her husband, who works at the municipal council and to give her children a better start in life than she had, she decided to start a business of her own, selling kava juice to customers across Saint Michel, South Santo and Malo.

Nelly and her husband shared a dream of growing the business and eventually, building a permanent family home. The question was the same one facing so many small business owners: where would the money come from?

That is when SPBD stepped in. Nelly admits she was skeptical at first: a loan with no deposit, fast processing, and none of the heavy paperwork she had expected sounded almost too good to be true.

“Zero deposit and fast processing of loans, and no heavy burden of document requirements. All SPBD needs is a valid ID card, two recent photos, business training and a completed form. SPBD understands we have literacy problems. It sounded too good to be true.”

As the saying goes, you will never know unless you try, and Nelly decided to give it a try.

Nelly was able to start a second business, a small food stall known locally among the mamas as a '20 vatu' business. 

Joining SPBD also taught Nelly the importance of saving. Beyond growing her savings with SPBD, she and her family started a household savings scheme of their own at home and both her earnings and her savings have grown steadily ever since. The family's old galvanised-iron house is now being renovated and rebuilt, one step closer to the permanent home Nelly and her husband have always dreamed of. Each day at the nakamal, that dream moves one more small, determined step forward.

Nelly takes pride not only in her business and her children's education but in the leadership role she has taken on within her SPBD centre. As Centre Secretary of Saint Michel Vanmolmol Center, she supports the centre chief by recording loan repayments and savings every Tuesday when the mamas meet.

“SPBD helped me to be smart and hardworking and to become somebody I never thought I could become. My dreams would never have become a reality if SPBD had not given me a chance.”