BPNG, financial centre partner to deliver financial workshop

THE Centre for Excellence in Financial Inclusion (Cefi), in partnership with the Bank of Papua New Guinea, is delivering a financial inclusion workshop to support the Milne Bay administration to improve access to formal financial services.
Cefi, as the custodian of the country’s financial inclusion strategy and the implementer of the government’s financial inclusion policy, will be working closely with Milne Bay administration to train and build their capacity and knowledge to roll out financial literacy and business development services training to reach a wider population in province, targeting mainly youths and women.
The activities will also include expanding banking and financial services network, increase formal bank accounts for residents, financial literacy and business development training and digitising provincial government payments.
Bank of PNG assistant governor Ellison Pidik encouraged administration staff to prioritise financial inclusion as an important development tool to improve the livelihood of people.
“In Milne Bay, most of the financially excluded are located in rural areas that are too far away from the nearest banking outlet,” Pidik said.
“The workshop will help the administration and its partners to identify and close the gap with delivering basic services like savings, credit, insurance, and payment services from a formal financial service provider.”
Milne Bay administrator Ashan Numa said the workshop would help the administration have a holistic and comprehensive understanding of financial inclusion.
“The programme will improve knowledge, understanding, skills, attitudes, and especially behaviours which people need in order to make sound personal finance decisions, suited to their social and financial circumstances,” Numa said. The workshop is an outcome of the provincial rollout programme under the National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2016-2020 to reach provincial, local level and wards to promote the integration of financial inclusion in the planning and implementation processes.