ENB hosts 9 financial entities

By ABIGAIL APINA
EAST New Britain is the second province in the country to have the highest number of licenced deposit- taking institutions after the National Capital District, Bank of Papua New Guinea Governor Loi Bakani said in Kokopo last Friday.
He made the remark when he presented the original banking licence of Kokopo Micro Finance.
Bakani said the birth of Kokopo Micro Finance had brought the total number of licenced financial institutions in the province to nine.
That included five saving and loans societies, three commercial banks and one micro-finance institution.
“This makes ENB the second province with the highest number of licenced deposit taking institutions after from National Capital District,” Bakani said.
He said ENB also had two largest societies in the country, which provided banking services to the people.
Bakani said the licencing of KML was an indication that the demand for financial services in the province was growing fast.
“The development of micro-finance in the country was important, as it targeted the lower end of the market usually those considered “un-bankable and underserved,” Bakani said.
He said six years ago, there was limited micro-finance activity in the country until BPNG as the existing agent of the then PNG-ADB micro-finance and employment project supported the creation of a pilot micro-bank in the country known as Wau Micro bank.
He said the successful roll out of the pilot project into a successful micro-bank enabled BPNG to see the need to develop microfinance institutions in the country to provide services to the vast majority of the people who do not have access to banking services.
Bakani saidd that micro-finance institutions, saving and loans societies and co-operative movements were financial intermediaries that played a significant role in collecting deposits, mobilising savings of households and lending to businesses to create employment and growth.
“These institutions are important vehicles that can be used to achieve government’s objectives of creating wealth and alleviating poverty.