By Hope Imaka – EM TV News, Port Moresby
The signing of the MOU Partnership Program between Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG) and World Vision (PNG) Trust took place today at the BPNG headquarters in downtown, Port Moresby.
The partnership sees World Vision join the Microfinance Expansion Project (MEP) and the Centre for Excellence and Financial Inclusion, to roll out financial literacy projects in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, with further expansion into other provinces.
The project itself is valued at US$24million. MEP is the second phase of the Microfinance and Employment Project which was first implemented in 2002, and ended in 2009.
In line with World Vision’s focus areas of eradicating poverty around the world, the partnership is a means for addressing these global challenges here in Papua New Guinea.
To date, of the 180,000 target of people being trained, the project has seen 120,000 people trained in financial literacy; 50,000 of which are women. The overall objective of this project as stated by Governor Loi Bakani of BPNG is having people develop a positive attitude towards managing their personal finances.
