The programs are rolled out in Eastern Highlands, Jiwaka, Madang, Milne Bay, Morobe and Chimbu provinces.
The Unite States Agency for International Development (USAID) through its Lukautim Graun Program (LGP) is partnering with Centre for Excellence in Financial Inclusion (CEFI) to deliver financial literacy training to rural and remote communities in six provinces.
On April 22, USAID’s LGP and CEFI teamed up to graduate twenty-one participants as new financial literacy trainers through a five-day financial literacy ‘training of trainers’ program in Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province.
USAID partners with CEFI to graduate trainers in the basics of teaching rural and remote community members about saving, budgeting, and online digital finance.
Learning these skills are the foundation for creation of new enterprises and increasing household and personal financial security, particularly women.
USAID’s LGP also delivered similar training in Jiwaka and soon will roll out financial literacy training in the Madang, Milne Bay, Morobe and Simbu provinces with an estimated 150 trainers graduating across all provinces.
In return for the training, each trainer commits to train at least 50 other individuals in their respective provinces and communities resulting in an estimated 7500 people across the six provinces with new skills in household and personal financial literacy.
Participants in the financial literacy training are given the opportunity to access banking services and the option to open bank accounts after the conclusion of each training session in cooperation with MiBank. MiBank, USAID, and the US International Development Finance Corporation recently signed a new Loan Guarantee Program agreement specifically targeting women and men in rural and remote areas.
Women’s groups, women leaders, small to medium enterprises, faith-based organizations, and community-based conservation organizations will now receive training and will be able to register as banking agents to facilitate access to new digital financial services through mobile phones.
Assistant Marketing Coordinator for Mama Bank, Bethel Benson, a national micro-finance bank focused on supporting women said, “I think this training has made me a better trainer and the training manuals make it simple to understand how saving and budgeting works.
“With this material I can easily teach my members of my communities and through my work. I plan on teaching people from my women’s group, local church group, Mama Bank customers, and my work colleagues.”