PinBox, a global social pension tech and digital micro-pension inclusion innovation, administration and expert advisory services firm, has now collaborated with the Centre for Financial Inclusion (CEFI) in promoting mass scale voluntary subscription in micro pension and insurance products in Papua New Guinea (PNG). PinBox is already working in over half-dozen countries in Asia and Africa to support pension inclusion for non-salaried informal sector workers. This partnership signed through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between both organizations will run for three years where both parties will work together to promote the products through guidelines set out in the MoU. The Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG) recently granted PinBox entry into the BPNG Regulatory Sandbox to customize and pilot test its innovative digital-micro-pension administration and delivery platform and inclusion model to help expand voluntary uptake of superannuation, insurance and micro-savings products among MSMEs, self-employed women, informal sector workers and farm communities. PinBox is accordingly working with BPNG, Nasfund, ASFPNG, development partners, microbanks, payment gateways and other digital financial inclusion stakeholders under the Project to promote micro-pension and insurance concepts and products. At a brief but significant signing ceremony, both organizational heads expressed their excitement in working together to introduce superannuation and insurance awareness and knowledge to the self-employed population of the country. According to Co-founder and Director of PinBox Solutions, Gautam Bhardwaj, the PinBox team is delighted to be partnering with a highly respected and forward-looking institution like CEFI on expanding superannuation and insurance coverage among self-employed women, youth and micro-enterprises in Papua New Guinea. “It is a privilege to be working with an agency that has continued to play such a pivotal role in financial inclusion and in driving not only policy but also ground level impact in this area in PNG.” In response to this, CEFI Executive Director, Mr. Saliya Ranasinghe stated that this was a very important programme that both organizations will be venturing into because they will educate the informal sector workforce on micro-pension and insurance products through effective communication, training, financial literacy tools and strategies. “We are delighted to partner with PinBox and to get this important strategy into the mainstream of Papua New Guinean informal sector.” “We will be working in two provinces to start with on a pilot basis, and then, based on the lessons learned, we will be expanding the field-tested model and strategy to other provinces where informal sector workers and their families will benefit and will start saving for their retirement.” One of the joint obligations of both CEFI and PinBox is to customize the PinBox retirement literacy and training toolkits for PNG for deployment under this project. The toolkits include calculators, FAQs, trainer handbooks, leaflets, flip charts and educational videos. In addition, both organizations will also design new, effective promotional and publicity materials as well as other training and financial literacy tools for use by field staff during field meetings with target beneficiaries.