Managing business a challenge for SMEs: CEO

BANK South Pacific Financial Group Ltd chief executive officer Robin Fleming says business management is a challenge for small-medium enterprises (SME).
Fleming was commenting on the bank’s credit enhancement scheme in partnership with the Government.
He said it could be addressed through capacity building programmes specifically tailored for SMEs.
He said the Department of Finance was working on the release of the second tranche of K100 million to the bank to continue its credit enhancement scheme loan programme.
“Funding is expected to be available in this quarter,” Fleming said.
“The legal agreement with the Government allows BSP to fund up to K200 million against the initial K100 million based on default rates not exceeding estimated targets. Since the inception of the Credit Enhancement Scheme in November 2020, the BSP Financial Group has lent a total of K126 million to 1,119 SMEs from around the country.
“The DCI (Department of Commerce and Industry) facilitated regional workshops in 2021 focused on the Credit Enhancement Scheme.
“The workshops were done jointly with the BSP Financial Group. More workshops are being planned for 2022. The Bank also conducts customer awareness on the CESL at its retail and hybrid sub branches.
“The scheme has made credit significantly more accessible to PNG SMEs by reducing the cost of borrowing, and leveraging BSP Financial Group’s experience, efficient established processes and its vast retail branch network.”