Centre for Excellence in Financial Inclusion

The OTDF and CEFI yesterday (Tuesday 12th March) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The program is aimed at empowering small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and women-led SMEs in selected regions of the Western Province.

This follows today’s business support grant launch in Lae by Business Link Pacific, in partnership with the Centre for Excellence in Financial Inclusion (CEFI) and the Lae Chamber of Commerce.

Business Link Pacific is a private sector development programme delivered by DT Global and funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The business support grants are designed to stimulate SME growth, innovation, access to finance and investment in social inclusion and climate action.

Over the last four months, the USAID, through its PNG Lukautim Graun Program, have trained 1,168 people, mostly women, in the two provinces.

The aim is to increase financial literacy in rural and remote communities throughout Papua New Guinea.

These participants now have a better understanding in the basics of savings and budgeting, the foundational skills for creating enterprises and increasing household and personal financial security.

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.

The green finance policy is an initiative being rollout throughout the Pacific, with Papua New Guinea, being one of the first countries to launch the policy.

CEFI together with partners New Zealand Government, Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and the Bank of Papua New Guinea launched the Policy for PNG’s financial and banking sector.

The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding signifies the understanding between the organizations trying to promote green and inclusive finance in the country. 

The Centre’s financial inclusion trainings and programs impacted the lives of more than 10,000 Papua New Guineans, 43 percent of them being women and girls.

More than 21,000 people received financial literacy training through the banking education programs.

This includes 8,000 students in 108 schools.

Girls and women have been given the opportunity to be smarter in handling their finances.

Participants described the training as an eye-opener and one that gave them confidence to make better decisions.