43 BSP Staff Graduate as Financial Literacy Trainers

Bank South Pacific continues to support nation building through its reach in Financial Literacy Training.
On Thursday 16th March, 43 BSP staff from various branches around Papua New Guinea successfully completed and graduated at a Trainer of Trainer (ToT) course in Financial Literacy that was delivered through Bank of PNG (BPNG) in partnership with the Centre for Excellence in Finance Inclusion (CEFI).

The four day training incorporates areas of Financial Education (FE) on Savings and Budgeting, and for the first time, introduces Business Development Skills (BDS) which will be targeted towards the Micro and Small to Medium Entrepreneur (MSME) customers.

This component would complement BSP's commitment to improving service offering to MSME customers and improving customer education and awareness.

Training certificates were awarded to the participants, who were all BSP staff. CEFI Director, Mr Saliya Ranasinghe, reiterated the need for each trainer to be role models in their community. "The trainer needs to know how to save and build a savings, before they can train others."

BSP Group General Manager - Retail, Paul Thornton encouraged staff to be proud of their achievement, as it will make a difference in their community.

"At present, BSP has a total of 120 qualified trainers, which is an investment we a proud of. Our coverage and network makes it feasible for BSP to be able to reach rural and the unbanked population," Mr Thornton said.

Assistant Governor, Bank of Papua New Guinea, Ellison Pidik reviewed positively. "BSP alone provided 90 per cent of Financial Literacy Education to the banking population of PNG," he said.

Partnerships with financial organisations like BSP, we aim to reach 60 thousand people by 2018, with 40% being female participants.

BSP has reached over 57, 000 people since 2014, a total of which 46% were female participants.  In 2016, BSP reached 32, 125 people in 2016.

With the 43 new ToTs, BSP has agreed to take on the challenge of delivering Financial Literacy Training and Business Development Skills (BDS) to 1,000 MSME clients by the March 2018.  A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between BPNG and BSP was signed during the graduation ceremony.