The Department for Community Development and Religion today hosted three significant Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) signings at the APEC Haus, in Port Moresby.
These signing agreements are vital for the Department as it continues to strengthen partnerships and collaborative efforts towards achieving its development priorities.
The first MoA was signed with Mama Bank to provide the platform to ensure women, the marginalised and the vulnerable population have access to banking and financial services.
They will have a much relaxed and flexible banking requirements to ensure easy access. The bank was also recently announced by the government as the country's third SME Bank.
According to the Banks CEO, Mr. Gunandhi Das, since the announcement, the bank has already given out close to 1,500 Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) Loans, starting in February this year and continuing.
Mr. Das thanked the Department and said this agreement is also very important to them in terms of reaching out to the rural districts with their banking services and products, riding on the back of the department’s provincial and district branches.
The second agreement was signed with the Centre of Excellence and Financial Inclusion (CEFI), giving them the capacity to continue its partnership with the Department,
The agreement paves way for CEFI's continuation of the financial literacy training programs to empower the communities with financial literacy skills and giving the people the opportunity to venture into SME, through Mama Bank's banking services.
CEFI's Acting Executive Director, Mr. Peter Samuel thanked the Secretary of DfCDR, Jerry Ubase for his leadership in ensuring the continuation of CEFI's partnership in providing their financial inclusion services. Especially their close collaboration with the Informal Economy Section under the Department in rolling out Financial Literacy trainings, which has impacted the lives of many low-income earners or even Informal market vendors over the period of their partnership.
Department Secretary, Mr. Ubase said the key functions of the department is to ensure the marginalised and vulnerable population in the country receive services through community Protection and Empowerment programs, enabling them to participate in the development and growth of the country.
He said through these key partnerships, it provides the necessary platform where the department can be able to reach the targeted population and also giving them the necessary skills and tools to build their financial capacity and earn income to sustain their livelihoods.
The final MoA was signed between DfCDR and Dicos PNG Limited, a contractor assigned to build the Kikori District Community Development Centre.
The initial agreement for the DCDC project for the Kikori Electorate in the Gulf province was already signed between the Department and Kikori District Development Authority.
The contractor will begin phase 1 of the construction of Kikori District Community Development Centre following today's agreement signing, where both the Department and Kikori DDA have put forward K750,000 each, totaling to a sum of K1.5million.
The Community Development Centre groundbreaking ceremony will take place tomorrow, Friday 03rd July at the Ihu Local Level Government (LLG) in the Kikori Electorate, Gulf Province.
