35 women from the informal sector around Port Moresby have received financial literacy training to better manage their money and build financial wealth.
The women, who are part of the Widows Association based in Waigani, are mainly market vendors and earn their income through the sale of vegetables and cooked food at the main markets.
They were taken through basics in budgeting, savings & mobile money and banking education by Bank South Pacific.
Association President, Maria Unde, said the information was very helpful and will make a difference for them who don’t have a regular and fixed income.
She said making money was an ad hoc thing but with a little savings put aside, they can be able to take care of their expected needs.
Participant Patricia Sawia acknowledged that she knew how to make money and contribute to support her family, and added that many of the expenses can be planned ahead and savings can be made to meet those goals.
“The knowledge of how to make a budget and plan for expected expenses was a good concept to learn and understand,” she said.
BSP Financial Literacy Trainer, John Gavuli, said “With the basic skills of budgeting and savings, we hope that we can help these women to be able to better manage money.
“The desired outcome for the delivery of this training is to get everyone to be financially independent, to understand the basics of budgeting and saving and to start applying these skills to their current lifestyle.
“We also have an arrangement with BSP Waigani Banking Centre to assist these women to open accounts, like the Plus Saver, to build their savings from what they earn,” added Gavuli.
BSP signed an MOU to deliver financial literacy training to Papua New Guineans in 2014. As a responsible financial institution, it continues to support Bank of Papua New Guinea's (BPNG) drive to promote financial inclusion programs in PNG.
The Financial Literacy Training modules are produced by BPNG for the Microfinance Expansion Project (MEP), supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Australian Government (DFAT) and Papua New Guinea Government (GoPNG).
(Picture: Widow’s Association President, Maria Unde, was one of the participants for the Financial Literacy Training, conducted by BSP)