Effects to increase financial inclusions vital

CONTINUOUS efforts to increase financial inclusion in Papua New Guinea is important, says an officer.
Bank of PNG (BPNG) financial systems development manager George Awap made the remarks at the graduation of more than 3,200 people on Friday from a financial education training programme conducted under the Microfinance Expansion Project (MEP), a project supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the PNG and Australian governments.
The graduates hail from Wewak, East Sepik.
“The project has substantially delivered basic financial knowledge to huge numbers of rural people in PNG,” ADB Pacific liaison and coordination office regional director Emma Fan said.
“It has allowed people, particularly women, the opportunity to open bank accounts, do mobile banking from market gardens, and, overall, get better access to financial services.”
The project was designed to increase financial inclusion in PNG by improving people’s knowledge of and access to financial services, targeting financial literacy education for 130,000 people across the country by the end of 2017.