NSLS targets fisheries, oil palm sectors

THE Nambwan Savings and Loans Society (NSLS) plans to provide savings facilities and products for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME).
Chief executive officer John Solok said the NSLS would target smallholder oil palm farmers and those in the fisheries sector first.
The NSLS has already partnered with the New Britain Palm Oil Ltd (NBPOL) to be the preferred savings and loans provider for small farmers.
“Through that partnership, we have now taken up as the preferred savings and loans services to all the oil palm growers with the focus on Kimbe. (The plan is) to go into all the other oil palm operation nationwide,” Solok said.
“Kimbe alone offers anything from 16,000 to 18,000 potential accounts and we are doing very well month on month in taking out membership (for) block owners who possess the Mama Card.”
It is also working with the Oil Palm Industry Corporation.
“We are looking at the fisheries and oil palm industries as a start before we open ourselves to individual micro and small enterprises around the country,” he said.
The NSLS is also working with the Bank of PNG to go into the MSME area “which we recognise comes with its risks as well”.
“We have secured a risk-sharing facility with BPNG which allows us to give us that comfort to work in the MSME with some of the risks taken up by the BPNG.”