Bank PNG outlines planned Maya Declaration commitment

AFI member institution Bank of Papua New Guinea (Bank PNG) recently outlined a plan to enhance financial inclusion in the nation. The bank’s future efforts are expected to form the basis of its upcoming Maya Declaration Commitment set to be officially announced during the Global Policy Forum (GPF) held 10-12 September 2013 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

With technical and financial assistance from the Pacific Financial Inclusion Program (PFIP), Bank PNG and the Centre for Excellence in Financial Inclusion (CEFI) brought together stakeholders for the National Strategy Workshop for Financial Inclusion and Financial Literacy in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea on 22-23 August 2013. Participants convened to build upon the priorities for financial inclusion determined in the Informal Economic Policy 2011, as well as establish targets for 2014 and 2015 in Papua New Guinea’s first national strategy on financial inclusion and financial literacy.

Commercial banks, micro-banks post PNG and additional participating non-bank financial institutions committed to reach a further 1.6 million unbanked and underserved Papua New Guineans by end of 2015 — 50 per cent of which will be low-income women.

The workshop marked the first time such a diverse range of stakeholders came together to identify what regulatory and market conditions are necessary to encourage innovation and scale, and commit to overcoming the challenges of building an inclusive financial sector in Papua New Guinea. It is also the first time stakeholders have identified action items, a timeline and outputs for seven priority areas of financial inclusion through a consultative process.

“We must together pursue our commitment to building an inclusive financial sector,” said Loi Bakani, Governor at Bank PNG.

Representatives from the Increasing Women’s Access to Financial Services Workshop tabled their recommendations at the National Workshop. Stakeholders agreed to increase outreach to women to represent 50 per cent of financial services portfolio, and to develop products that are appropriate for rural women.

Attendees identified the importance of creating a financially competent generation of Papua New Guineans through incorporating financial education in school curriculum. A consensus was reached on the importance of the identification of minimum key learning outcomes that financial literacy providers must cover, which included the 13 competency areas recommended by the Financial Competency Survey that Bank PNG and PFIP carried out earlier this year.

Regulators, donors, and representatives from the media and rural areas recognized the critical need to create a platform for various regulators to meet regularly to ensure consumer protection in order to protect the low-income consumers. Additionally, stakeholders identified the need to help move forward the regulation and implementation for universal ID proposal and to have regular meetings to solve the challenges of working in a difficult terrain like Papua New Guinea.

Participants in the Demand Driven Research and Data Group agreed to identify measures for key dimensions of financial inclusion to be regularly updated, and to establish systems for the regular reporting and collection of information needed to measure the defined indicators.

The Integrating Financial Inclusion in Local and National Government Group pointed toward the need to formalize working relationships between various government departments focusing on areas in financial inclusion and financial literacy at a national level, and to provide guidance and framework for implementing this area collaboratively at the provincial and district level.

Finally, the Micro-Enterprise Financing Group agreed a risk share facility targeting Micro-Enterprise is critical to facilitate lending to informal enterprises in the country.