Leave some money with micro banks, says Yaninen

THE K200 million National Budget allocation for small businesses should also be distributed within the smaller micro banks and not just be centralised in larger commercial banks.
This was according to Micro Small Medium Enterprise (MSME) president Desmond Yaninen who said this would allow financial inclusion for everyone.
Prime Minister James Marape met with Bank South Pacific (BSP) this week to progress partnership discussions for the K200 million allocation which would be transferred to commercial banks for soft lending to take place.
“BSP has provided to government an SME product term sheet, Kina Bank and NDB (National Development Bank) have done the same,” Yaninen said.
“But really, my advice to Government would be to look at especially our micro banks.
“So when you look at that actual connection with the grassroots, the first step in through the door is through a micro bank.
“It’s important to get our people through the door in the first place with financial inclusion.
“My recommendation to the Government is and has always been that if you want to give SME packages, don’t centralise it with all of the big commercial banks.
“Include some of your micro banks in it as well so there everyone can access that and everyone benefits.”
Marape said last week that Government was in the process of transferring the funds to commercial banks for soft lending to take place.
He indicated that from initial terms offered by the commercial banks, BSP had offered a 5 per cent interest over five years while Kina Bank has offered 4 per cent interest over 20 years with an undisclosed offer by the National Development Bank (NDB).