Bank of PNG (BPNG) Assistant Governor, Ellison Pidik, says a large majority of rural people are missing out on accessing financial services due to obstacles such as road infrastructure and the limited number of income generating avenues.
Pidik made these remarks following a one-day public consultation review on financial services in Lae yesterday.
It is a joint program by the Treasury Department and BPNG.
The one-day workshop saw participants from the provincial government, financial institutions, commercial banks, stakeholders and the general public taking part.
The views collected will help the team from the Bank of PNG and Treasury to come up with a strategy to implement.
There will also be recommendations for further reform of the banking sector including payment systems, financial inclusion, and the financial sector regulatory framework.
From this workshop, it has been identified that the majority of rural people are not knowledgeable in terms of the different financial services that are available to them.
And at the same time, they are not able to use those different services back in the rural communities.
Pidik said banking services to the rural areas is a task that needs the collaborative efforts from all stakeholders, including the government.
A similar workshop will also be carried out in the other three regions. For the Momase region, Lae and Madang have been selected to take part in the consultation workshop.
The team will carry out another workshop in Madang on Friday.
Rabaul and Buka are scheduled for next week followed with Goroka and Mt Hagen.
