Rental arrears affecting SME operations in city

A LOCAL tailoring small to medium enterprise (SME) owner at the now closed Pacifika Women’s Network (PWN) incubation centre in Port Moresby says this has been her second time to move out of a rented space.
Nivan Tailoring founder Heather Pole-Vanua said she had to move out of the National Development Bank incubation centre at Kunai St, Hohola, last month after operating her business there for three years.
“I have just been here at Pacifika for close to a month, I will get back to operating from home in Kennedy Estate,” she told The National last Thursday.
“We are all affected and this is the sort of thing the Government should address.”
Pole-Vanua said she was one of the first SMEs to respond to the demand and sewed face masks during the peak of the Covid-19 lockdown in Papua New Guinea in April.
“I was at NDB Incubation trade centre for three years, and then we were told to move out, so we came here to Pacific Women’s Network thinking that everything was going to be okay for us.
“Now we were told to move out again and it is going to be very difficult for us to find another location to start all over again.
“How can the Government help women who are trying to do business, start up something yet face such situation?”
The centre was closed last Thursday due to non-payment of rental to the property owner Pacific Palms Property.
PWN leases spaces to more than 87 women in SMEs.
According to the property owner, this was an orderly wind up and exit, due to the Covid-19 a number of pledges were not delivered to PWN and they simply could not afford to operate.
“If we are serious about taking back PNG, this is where Community Development Department or other responsible authority should step in to help women who are contributing to the country’s economy,” Pole-Vanua said.
“These small SMEs are doing so much work.”