Seventeen entrepreneurs from Motu Koitabu will now manage their own trade stores.
Thanks to the recently introduced Super Village Store Project initiated by NCD Governor Powes Parkop in conjunction with Super Value Shops in Port Moresby.
The shop operators graduated yesterday after completing one week training.
The Motu Koitabuans are the original landowners of Port Moresby. They have lost much of their land in the name of development since the rural urban drift.
They now live in a cash economic society and are restricted to fish in certain areas because of the different existing projects along the coast of Moresby South Electorate.
The program is in line with the government’s Small Medium Enterprise or SME Scheme and receives support from BSP, under its rural banking program. It aims at creating a financial economy for Motu Koitabuans.
It is a pilot project, but shop operators who have graduated from the first training last September, say they are earning a profit of K20 000 monthly.
The training though funded by NCD, is not politically related, and applicants are screened and selected by SVS.
The selection criteria are based on the land ownership where the store will be built, and the number of houses which will be surrounding the store.
The graduates were challenged by Governor Parkop to be employers. He said, we cannot continue to rely on investors and we must start to create wealth for ourselves.
Once the stores are operating, they will be purchasing goods directly from SVS via email.
Over twenty trade stores have been opened under this program, with the latest to be opened this Saturday.
The program is already attaching goods providers like Digicel, Colgate Palmolive and Coca Cola Amatil. The governor is planning on moving into other electorates soon.
