The National Gaming Control Board (NGCB) had presented a cheque worth of K50,000 to fund a one week integrated financial literacy training at Dona village, Waria local level government in Morobe Province.
The training will be led by LinkPad Technologies and Publishing (LinkPad) with support from experts co-opted from University of Papua New Guinea.
The CEO of NGCB, Imelda Agon while presenting the cheque said she believes in the initiative of upskilling the neglected rural population in the remote parts of PNG to open door of opportunities to the people.
“Through our continuous effort in building the communities around PNG, we are glad to assist LinkPad and UPNG with a funding of K50, 000 to conduct the integrated rural financial literacy training,” Agon said.
“This type of training is needed by majority of the people in our rural areas to help them develop success mindset, and equip them with the relevant skills they need to manage their money, start businesses and even learn to invest some of their money.
“National Gaming Control Board sees this as a positive way forward in assisting to build smart and responsible citizens on this nation”
Ian Hetri, the managing director of LinkPad who received the cheque on behalf of LinkPad and UPNG said he is eager to drive national government’s vision of educating and empowering the massive rural population.
“The national government may come up bigger visions for the education sector but it takes visionary and innovative entrepreneurs to translate the national governments vision into reality,” Hetri said.
“With powerful technologies on our hand, we have no excuse not to reach out to the underserved rural population and raise them up” he added.
Mr Hetri said his vision is very simple but challenging to execute.
“Our vision is simple. I want to bring high quality university education, both local and international to the 85% underserved population in rural PNG. It may sound simple but requires innovative minds and money to execute.
LinkPad will soon launch its fully integrated online Learning academy that connects the local and international universities to the rural communities around PNG and using mobile and tablet technologies to deliver the much needed skills in rural PNG.
Hetri also added that his firm is developing a financial literacy app and an android game to help rural people learn about key money management skills right from the village and at the comfort of their homes.
“We want to use technology to make this complex subject call financial literacy super simple and insanely fun to learn”
The unique features of the app and the game are not found elsewhere on this whole planet and we are thrilled” he concluded.
About LinkPad: LinkPad is a home grown local technology and publishing company that is also spearheading rural education using its expertise in information communications technology and, research and publication. The firm co-opts academic and corporate expertise using its platform to educate, empower and up skill rural population.