‘NDB provided K39m loan to PNG last year’

THE National Development Bank (NDB) had provided a total of K39 million in loans to the people of Papua New Guinea at the end of last year.
This was revealed at the 2010 managers’ conference in the Madang Resort Hotel on Wednesday.
Of the total lending of K23.1 million, the Agriculture sector’s lending rose to K12.8 million and K10.8 million was for commercial purposes.
NDB executive manger loans Rodney Hoffman said another K2.8 million was lent out to credit schemes.
He said K6 million was collected in repayments on the no-active books and only K1.8 million was treated as recovery.
“A total of K15 million was collected in repayments on active books,” he added.
He said NDB would be giving out loans of more than K30 million this year, funding from recovery funds.
He said in the 2010 business plan, a total of K20 million would be loaned out to agriculture projects using National Agriculture Development Plan (NADP) funding by the Government and another K10 million under various credit schemes.
Mr Hoffman said NDB also strategised in its 2010 business plan to recover K5 million from bad and doubtful debts, targeting about 20 other bank clients to do business with NDB.
He said the Government’s NADP funds of K20 million for agriculture projects would be spread across Agri-Commodity sectors from March to June.
He said co-operatives would also benefit from the National Government’s budget allocation of K7 million.
“Every co-operatives in Papua New Guinea will benefit from the budget allocated funds from the Government and NDB,” Mr Hoffaman said He said there was a lot of money available to help improve the lives of the Papua New Guineans and managers should work harder to find the clients.