Wau Waria’s financial push earns BPNG invite to Global summit

The Bank of Papua New Guinea [BPNG] will host a global meeting that will bring together central banks from around the world under their ‘Alliance for Financial Inclusion’ [AFI] network.

As the financial inclusion arm of BPNG, the Center for Excellence in Financial Inclusion [CEFI] has officially invited the member for Wau Waria, Marsh Narewec to attend this global central banks’ meeting.

The invitation was made by CEFI’s Acting Director, Peter Samuel after signing a Memorandum of Understanding [MOU] with the district last month, following the district’s request to have locals trained in managing and saving their income.

“I commend this action Member, Marsh Narewec for initiating this training program. He is the second district MP in the country after the Member for Kerema, Thomas Opa, to request this type of financial training for his people under an MOU. Not many leaders prioritize this, and it reflects true visionary leadership,” Samuel said.

“We are also aware that through the establishment of the Mama Bank earlier this year, the district has already supported many SME owners. Therefore as a representative of the Central Bank, I now invite the MP to attend our global meeting with hundreds of central banks in September,” he stated.

The CEFI boss further requested that the district identify an SME owner who has excelled in business, for BPNG to showcase as a real success story during this global conference.

He went on to state that the previous conference was held in Namibia in Africa, where it was agreed that Papua New Guinea would host this year’s meeting.

“The reason PNG was selected is due to the progress we’ve made through partnerships like this. On behalf of the Central Bank, I ask that your officers identify a successful SME owner before September when hundreds of central banks will congregate,” he reiterated.

Acknowledging the invitation, the Wau Waria MP, Marsh Narewec confirmed that officers working through the Mama Bank initiative will identify a suitable SME owner before September.

“This invitation is unexpected and I am honored and thankful to the Bank of PNG through CEFI for this recognition. My people have strong cash flow generated from gold, coffee, cocoa and small businesses, they only lack the skills to manage their hard-earned cash.”

“Involving CEFI is my District Development Authority’s (DDA) approach to establishing a structured financial training system where participants receive training, are then linked to banking services of the already established Mama Bank in Wau so they open up accounts, and begin saving as per the CEFI trainings to invest in their future,” Narewec said.

The MP went on to pledge his DDA’s full support for CEFI, and only requested CEFI’s assistance to ensure the Mama Bank digitizes its system to enable mobile banking services.

This he said, will save more time for both the bankers and the people, and reduce the cost of travelling long distances just to access basic banking services like balance checks.