Access to Finance for MSME & Agriculture Enterprise

Special attention was given to improve access to finance to MSMEs. Risk Share Facility (RSF) established by Microfinance Expansion Project (MEP) is covering under its facility the loan portfolio offered by licensed FSPs to micro entrepreneurs. The RSF has signed partnership with 8 financial service providers and guaranteed cumulatively 3,911 loans covering a portfolio of K60.7million. GoPNG is in progress to establish Credit Guarantee Corporation to improve access to credit. Personal Property Securities Act (PPSA) and Registry made it easier to pledge movable property to stand good for loans providing a legal framework thereby more people had the opportunity to participate in commerce. This framework addressed to an extent the issue of collateral consolidating all lending against movable property under one law. The online registry provides notices of all charges over moveable property and the registration is done from the lender’s own office, in real-time with clear priority position. The PPSA registry is searchable online in real time, allowing lenders to immediately assess whether someone seeking a loan has already pledged their collateral to another party. Few pilots for rural finance, agriculture insurance, mobile micro insurance, microfinance, crowd funding and peer to-peer lending platform has been put in place, yet these initiatives have never reached the scale.

As part of Pacific Regional Initiative Forum (PIRI), PNG is engaged in Green Finance Initiatives. The Inclusive Green Finance Project (IGPF) aims at greater climate resilience and inclusive green growth in PNG. The project will produce a green taxonomy with strong emphasis to financial inclusion, a diagnosis on the state of inclusive green finance in PNG, and an implementation road map for PNG Green Finance Policy. IGPF is the first step towards monitoring, regulating and promoting green finance in PNG.