Four applicants have been awarded a share of over K351,000 in their “Women’s Entrepreneurship Capacity Building Fund”.
Through a competitive process, the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) selected four players.
They are PNGX Markets, Tok Stret Consulting, Westpac and Agbook.
They will be signing a Performance-Based Grant Agreement with UNCDF to deploy gender-responsive trainings and capacity building inputs that meet the needs of the informal women traders, women micro-entrepreneurs, and formally established women led businesses and Small, Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
The trainings will be focused in Port Moresby and Lae as starting points and later expanded to other regions of the county.
The Fund was launched in November last year to complement the Government’s efforts in addressing the COVID-19 driven economic shocks on the formal and informal economy.
UNCDF country lead, Jagdeep Dahiya, said: “The Fund seeks to support the development of digital and financial literacy solutions targeting women-led MSMEs and women entrepreneurs to enhance their financial management and business skills in the country.
“We expect over 4,000 women entrepreneurs to benefit from these trainings before the end of 2022.”
Dahiya added: “The four awardees are expected to contribute at least 20 percent of the total project cost (such as technical resources, staff and operational expenses) so they have a better grasp of the digital and financial literacy to improve their business and financial management capacities through appropriate market-based business development services.”
This is part of a joint initiative of UNDP and UNCDF under the UNDP Rapid Finance Facility for COVID-19 Response and will also include an Access to Finance for women entrepreneur’s component to making digital financial services available to PNG businesswomen in the informal and formal sector.
