East New Britain Province becomes the fourth province in Papua New Guinea to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Centre for Excellence in Financial Inclusion (CEFI).
The MoU was signed by Assistant Governor, Financial System Stability Group, Bank of PNG – Ellison Pidik, on behalf of the Governor of Bank of PNG and Chairman of CEFI, Mr. Loi Bakani, and Governor East New Britain Province Nakikus Konga.
The signed MoU will promote the integration of financial inclusion in the East New Britain administration planning and implementation processes and also build the capacity of East New Britain Province administration staff to implement important financial inclusion activities.
The activities will include integrating the PNG financial inclusion strategy in provincial government planning and budgeting process to expand banking and financial services network, increase formal banking accounts for people, financial literacy and business development training and digitizing provincial government payments.
CEFI as the custodian of the PNG Financial Inclusion Strategy and implementor of the Government’s Financial Inclusion Policy will be working closely with the East New Britain administration staff to train and build their capacity and knowledge to roll out financial literacy and business development services training to reach a wider population in the province targeting mainly women and youths.
Assistant Governor, Financial System Stability Group, Bank of PNG – Ellison Pidik noted the importance of a savings culture and encouraged people from East New Britain to save as this will empower them financially to go into other opportunities like investments.
Mr Pidik also pointed out that 65% of the ENB population that are unbanked must have bank accounts and enjoy the opportunities of efficient banking services provided by banks.
“With this MOU we can look at these opportunities to transform value so that the value goes back to the people and we are excited on behalf of the governor of Bank of Papua New Guinea to implement the MoU,” said Mr Pidik.
East New Britain Governor Nakikus Konga said the signing marked an important milestone for the province because this will pave the way for financial inclusion activities in the province.
Mr Konga believed financial inclusion activities in the province will grow East New province’s economy.
Mr Konga added his provincial government will support the MoU and empower its people to go into cash crop activities and make use of the opportunities that are available.
He encouraged his provincial administration and local level government officers who attended awareness sessions by BPNG and CEFI to take back what they have learnt and take the learnings right down to the rural areas and share the important information as this is one way where the people can learn about financial inclusion and what it can do to improve their standard of living.
CEFI Executive Director Saliya Ranasinge said provincial governments play an important role because they are closer to their people and can drive the financial inclusion message strongly.
The MoU is an outcome of the provincial rollout project under the National Financial Inclusion Strategy to reach government, provincial, local level and wards to promote and ensure quality financial services are delivered by range of providers at affordable cost in a convenient manner, and user-friendly.
For further information on the work of CEFI please contact CEFI Communications and Stakeholder Mobilization Team: +675 3225300, email: lomaro@thecefi.org