Wau residents need banking facilities

 RESIDENTS of the mining town of Wau in Morobe need a banking service, mayor Sogga Gaumina says. 

Gaumina said the only bank in the area left five years ago for unknown reasons. 

Gaumina said the 16,000 residents of WauTown had been making risky trips to Bulolo 20 kilometers away to access banking services.

Gaumina said the People’s Micro Bank use to serve the town and the surrounding villages of Biangai, Misput and Kaping.

“Wau is a small town with a lot of cash flow,” Gaumina said.

“We have small-scale miners, coffee growers, public servants, shops, trucks, schools, health centres and airstrip in Wau. A lot of money changes hands here but there is no bank.”

Gaumina said he wanted to see a bank set up in Wau.

Bulolo MP Sam Basil said there were over-the-counter rural banking services provided by some shops in the town to cater for the people’s banking needs.

Basil said the decision by the People’s Micro Bank to leave Wau was a commercial decision, which the district had no say over.

“Micro Bank has left Wau because there were not enough clients. Most of the people in Wau came to bank in Bulolo,” he said.

Basil said Bank South Pacific in Mumeng had also withdrawn its services after it was robbed twice.

Basil said it was sad that the people in Mumeng did not hand in those involved in the robberies. 

“Banking services in rural areas needed community support,” Basil said.

“If we do not support them they will pack up and leave.”