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American Samoa Venture Fund invests in privately owned Hope Dialysis Center

DOC director Keniseli Lafaele and Hope Dialysis Center co-founder and managing director Chris Fisher.
Source: Media release

Utulei, AMERICAN SAMOA — The American Samoa Venture Fund (ASVF) is investing $300,000.00 into the territory’s first private dialysis clinic, Hope Dialysis Center.

The ASVF is an investment fund that manages money from the territory’s State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) allocation, which is funded and administered by the U.S. Department of Treasury. The purpose of ASVF is to encourage private investment into business development and job creation; provide access to capital for small local businesses; and strengthen the local economy.

Hope Dialysis Center aspires to improve health care services for the territory, rendering aid for the rising number of renal dialysis patients.

“Hope Dialysis Center will benefit the community greatly by saving lives, creating jobs, and bringing additional revenues into American Samoa. We expect to see 50 patients per year at the onset and we expect 20% growth year after year. We will bring federal funds via Medicare into the community that will allow to us hire more medical employees like nurses and orderlies. In addition, we will work with LBJ to provide enhanced medical services for the people of American Samoa.” said HDC co-founder and managing director Chris Fisher.

On December 5th, 2018, Director of ASG Department of Commerce Keniseli Lafaele gladly presented the ASVF check to Fisher, thanking him for his efforts to improve health care services in the territory and for supporting the development of the private health care industry.

“This is a great opportunity for the ASVF to invest in a business that will provide essential health services for our people, create good jobs, and bring in new money to support our economy.” stated director Lafaele.

“We hope that this will also encourage other private health care practitioners and entrepreneurs to bring viable business projects to the table so that the ASVF and other investors may have an opportunity to support their efforts. The ASVF investment was only one part of the financing strategy for HDC, they had to raise at least another $300,000 via private investors and I congratulate them on their efforts.”

The Hope Dialysis Center is currently advertising job openings on their website at www.hopedialysiscenter.com and their facility is located in Iliili. HDC aims to open its doors in early February 2019.

Samoa News reached out to one of the local investors in the private clinic, John Wasko for a comment. Wasko said, “We raised $600,000. All locally — $300,000 from the venture fund. So the venture fund is a shareholder. No non local money was raised for the build out and start up.”

Samoa News reported in 2017 that the fund manager of the American Samoa Venture Fund is local attorney Marshall Ashley, who is also a certified public accountant, and DOC staffer Mike McDonald is attached to the SSBCI program. The fund’s adviser is Andy Moss, who is a venture capital advisor at New York University. The Office of Grants Oversight and Accountability is the compliance officer for the program.

For more information on the American Samoa Venture Fund, please contact the Department of Commerce at 633-5155 or by emailing info@doc.as

See today's issue for story of other economic initiatives the ASVF is currently developing.