Growing up in the 1990s in Bialla, West New Britain Province, a young Jessica Kuambu witnessed firsthand how people from her area spent cash recklessly without giving a single thought about saving.
The oil palm boom in the province caused an overflow of cash into the province hence Jessica to help her people one day to learn about savings.
“When I was in high school my parents had an oil palm block and during the harvesting period there was so much money floating around, people did not know what to do with it, the only thing they knew was spending it recklessly,” revealed Jessica.
“My father also had a small trade store and on weekends we would make around K80,000 to K100,000 in cash. My parents would put all that money under their mattress and sleep on it until Monday, and go to the bank and deposit all these money,” she recalled vividly.
“During school holidays, going back home, I sometimes question why can’t OPIC or Hargy conduct some training to teach these people how to save their money,” said Jessica.
This question 30 years on motivated Jessica to one day help her people know about saving and budgeting their money.
On Friday 19 April 2024, Jessica was among 31 participants certified by CEFI to be trainers in Financial Literacy.
The graduating batch was part of the first Expression of Interest-Training of Trainers training facilitated by CEFI in their Port Moresby office.
Jessica, who currently works as a Manager-Sales and Marketing with East New Britain Savings and Loans (ENBSL) in Kokopo, attended the training with two of her colleagues, Chief Executive Officer Lavinia Taraika and Business Development Officer Peter Wartovo.
Having an ENBSL branch in Bialla is the springboard for Jessica to use to impart the knowledge and skills she gained from the five days of training to her local community.
She revealed that there was a great need for financial inclusion activities and financial literacy programs to be implemented in local governments in rural areas.
She added they were unable to attend to the high number of requests for financial literacy training due to the limited number of trainers but now that is about change following the training.
“We are increasing the number of trainers in the ENBSL, so we can go out and train as many people as we can in financial literacy in all the four districts in ENB,” she said.
“We (ENBSL) are also expanding throughout the New Guinea Islands so in this capacity we can cover more territory not just inside ENB but in nearby provinces as well.”
For Jessica, the training has equipped her well to return home and encourage her people to open bank accounts, save their money and empower them with financial freedom.