SME partnership reaps results

BUSINESS

The micro, small to medium enterprise (MSME) partnership between British American Tobacco, Human Development Institute, Women’s Micro Bank and Eagle PV Business Scheme Ltd has produced a milestone achievement on Nov 13.
A group of 38 course participants or praxis had borrowed education loans from WMB amounting K55,700 to pay for their Personal Viability Business Scheme (PVBS) training Levels 1, 2 and 3.
The training will enable these ambitious individuals to pursue their entrepreneurial skills to run their business activities effectively and efficiently.
This partnership stemmed from an agreement with British American Tobacco (BAT) under their Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) framework that funded the MSME programme to help train ordinary Papua New Guineans to develop entrepreneurial skills and venture into MSME activities.
The parties recognise that before they are eligible for MSME project loans, informal businessmen and women should have adequate knowledge on ethics, principles and know-how in sustainable business models and access to funds to enable them to play a more active role in their economic development and contribution to the nation.
To enable this, they should have gone through a proper training to use money to make money in their own businesses.
The major impediment for participants to undertake HDI’s PVBS Level 3 training has been the unavailability of funding. But BAT has made the training possible for this group through the provision K200,000 through its ESG initiative.
So far a total of K60,000 has been credited to HDI praxis as business loans since the signing of the agreement between BAT and HDI on May 15, 2020. This has assisted all these praxis to reach PVBS Level 3, the Game of Money stage.
Through the funding from BAT, WMB has created a separate loan product known as “WMB-HDI Revolving Credit Guarantee Education Loan” to help Papua New Guineans to go through PVBS Levels 1, 2 and 3 training from HDI and make available to them the MSME credit funds to run their businesses. This will allow participants to use this education loan to go through the first three PVBS levels and develop entrepreneurial skills thereby alleviating poverty and improve living standards.
In addition, this provides equal opportunities for everyone to become self-reliant and financially independent and to create self-employment opportunities for school leavers, unemployed and unemployable.
This MSME partnership programme has developed and prepared the HDI praxis to become successful in managing their business activities and also in improving them through successive investments. This will also significantly assist the praxis in their income generating activities to become more stable, and eventually migrate into formal SMEs, hence lifting them out of poverty. This will empower local people to participate in MSMEs and eventually fulfill the Government’s plans for the creation of 500,000 SMEs by 2030 and boost the local economy.
During the first loan repayment ceremony held on Nov 13 at HDI head office in Port Moresby, HDI chairman and founder Samuel Tam, better known as Papa Sam, commended the MSME partnership programme as going in the right direction for the benefit of all ordinary Papua New Guineans. He further thanked BAT for funding the programme, and WMB for being HDI’s banking partner through for their innovative banking approach. Papa Sam said he was looking for such a bank partner over the last 25 years.
He thanked Eagle PV Business Scheme Ltd for supporting HDI and praxis as HDI’s business development partner. Papa Sam further said that the onus was now on all existing and new praxis, particularly women to make good use of this golden opportunity to excel in their entrepreneurial development ambitions. Plans are being finalised to take this MSME partnership initiative to other parts of PNG in 2021 and beyond.
WMB’s CEO, Gunanidhi Das applauded BAT saying the company was taking the right move adding that WMB has and would always empower women it believed that women were the gateway to economic empowerment in the country. He said the bank was happy to partner with BAT, Eagle and HDI in any prospects these organisations would bring into their partnership.
“We, WMB entrenched our business philosophy in women’s economic empowerment because women take care of family welfare and are the best managers of every household, therefore WMB places greater emphasis on inclusive development of the family through women empowerment.
Das emphasised that WBB was the only licensed financial institution in PNG with an explicit focus on wome.
“We believe that when money goes into the women’s hands it reaches 100 per cent to each family’s welfare and guarantees higher utilisation of total disposable income with a nil-delinquency rate,” Das said.

About Eagle PV Business Scheme
Eagle PV Business Scheme Ltd is 100 per nationally owned and works towards the common goal of becoming viable with viable income-generating projects. It is made up of PVBS alumni who have decided not to wait for assistance but to take the initiative to help themselves and others using PV knowledge and business-class education. Eagle PV Business Scheme Ltd is a not-for-profit social business, participating in the MSME partnership programme with HDI and WMB, dedicated to making Papua New Guineans rich.
Eagle PV Business Scheme Ltd was fully established last year and signed an agreement to establish a partnership with HDI this year. Eagle is committed to develop enabling mechanisms and support systems that will be facilitated and managed to provide business opportunities to help praxis graduate from Level 1-7.
Eagle sponsored six coaches this year and supports distribution networks in NCD, Morobe, Bougainville, Milne Bay, Popondetta, Manus, Wewak and Vanimo which strategically strengthen the development of Eagle PV Business Scheme Ltd and the rollout PV knowledge and business-class education throughout PNG.