67 government officers from the East New Britain Provincial Government (ENBPG) are now certified Training of Trainers (TOT) under the Center for Excellence in Financial Inclusion (CEFI).
The officers from Kokopo, Gazelle and Rabaul districts graduated yesterday afternoon after undergoing a three weeks-long training in Kokopo.
The participants covered two modules Savings and Budgeting. The training was facilitated by CEFI principal trainer Jill Pijui while representatives from CEFI Special Project Manager Jeremiah Wenogo were present to witnessed the graduation and present the certificates.
Doing the welcome remarks yesterday for the official opening of the program Advisor of the division of Commerce Rosemary Murure said that upon the ENBPG expression of interest in financial literacy as a fundamental skills capacity in financial education for the average people in communities, the PEC passed a policy in May 2021, for ENBPA to participate in the roll out of Financial Inclusion Services in the province in collaboration with finance institutions.
Mrs Murure said the training is the first so far in the province following the signing of MOU between the ENBPG and CEFI last year.
On behalf of the provincial government she said they are thankful that finally the province got CEFI onboard as one of the development pathway in the province which the ENB Financial Inclusive Policy is currently rolled out with anticipated total commitment and participation from the four districts and the 18 LLG administrations.
“If ENB is talking about ward focus development than financial inclusion is a basic financial management tool for our ordinary people in the villages” she said.
Mrs Murure added that if the province is talking about growing the local economy and this program is important so that families are equip with skills on how to manage their finance.
She congratulates the participants and challenged them to go back to their own wards and run similar financial literacy training to people at the ward.
Mr Wenogo explained that the training is not another normal training but it is derived from a national government policy and one of the key strategy is that CEFI has to deliver is the financial literacy training.
The financial literacy training is one of the major activities among other activities CEFI is rolling out and urged all to make use of the skills and knowledge to others and in their wards.