Project launched to support women entrepreneurs

By PETER ESILA
THE United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) with UN Development Programme (UNDP) have launched a Rapid Finance Facility (RFF) project to support women entrepreneurs in the country.
UNCDF country lead Jagdeep Dahiya said in Port Moresby yesterday that the project would work with financial service providers to promote fitting and affordable financial products and services that would also include access to finance for women entrepreneurs to making digital financial services (DFS) available to businesswomen in both the informal and formal sector.
The project takes a multi-pronged approach in addressing various barriers faced by the women entrepreneurs in formal and informal sectors.
The key interventions include: women entrepreneurship capacity building; digital finance for women entrepreneurs – innovation fund; adoption of e-commerce by women entrepreneurs; a business incubator facility for women entrepreneurs, and; access to finance for women entrepreneurs through portfolio guarantee.”
During the launch yesterday, performance-based grant funding agreements were signed with five partners, under the UNCDF’s “Women’s Entrepreneurship Capacity Building Fund” and “E-Commence Support Fund” as part of our support benefitting almost 5,000 women entrepreneurs in Port Moresby and Lae.
The partners include Emstret Holdings Limited, PNGX, Westpac Bank PNG Ltd, AgBook Agri-business Training and Advisory and Tok Stret Consulting.
Dahiya said the partners had been selected through a competitive process and would initiate their activities upon signing of the agreements to deploy gender-responsive training and capacity building inputs that met the needs of the informal women traders, women micro-entrepreneurs, and women led businesses.